John E. Leide

A Cognitive Framework for Human Information Behavior: The Place of Metaphor in Human Information Organizing Behavior

Human information behavior (HIB) is a way of broadening the perspective when looking at the nexus between the information user and the information he or she is purposively or non-purposively seeking, for both conscious and unconscious reasons, wherever it may be found (for other HIB definitions, cf. also Case, 2002; Wilson, 2000). HIB includes several sub-sections, divisions, or facets, which we will only list here (the HIB sub-sections are fully discussed elsewhere in this volume, Spink, Park, & Cole, 2005; cf. also, Spink & Cole, in press), including:

Visualization schemes for domain novices exploring a topic space: the navigation classification scheme

In this article and two other articles which conceptualize a future stage of the research program (Leide, Cole, Large, & Beheshti, submitted for publication; Cole, Leide, Large, Beheshti, & Brooks, in preparation), we map-out a domain novice users encounter with an IR system from beginning to end so that appropriate classification-based visualization schemes can be inserted into the encounter process. This article describes the visualization of a navigation classification scheme only. The navigation classification scheme uses the metaphor of a ship and ships navigator traveling through charted (but unknown to the user) waters, guided by a series of lighthouses. The lighthouses contain mediation interfaces linking the user to the information store through agents created for each. The users agent is the cognitive, model the user has of the information space, which the system encourages to evolve via interaction with the systems agent. The systems agent is an evolving classification scheme created by professional indexers to represent the structure of the information store. We propose a more systematic, multidimensional approach to creating evolving classification/indexing schemes, based on where the user is and what she is trying to do at that moment during the search session.

Using the user's mental model to guide the integration of information space into information need

The study reported here tested the efficacy of an information retrieval system output summary and visualization scheme for undergraduates taking a Vietnam War history who were in Kuhlthaus Stage 3 of researching a history essay. The visualization scheme consisted of (a) the undergraduates own visualization of his or her essay topic, drawn by the student on the bottom half of a sheet of paper, and (b) a visualization of the information space (determined by index term counting) on the top-half of the same page. To test the visualization scheme, students enrolled in a Vietnam War history course were randomly assigned to either the visualization scheme group, who received a high recall search output, or the nonvisualization group, who received a high precision search output. The dependent variable was the mark awarded the essay by the course instructor. There was no significant difference between the mean marks for the two groups. We were pleasantly surprised with this result given the bad reputation of high recall as a practical search strategy. We hypothesize that a more proactive visualization system is needed that takes the student through the process of using the visualization scheme, including steps that induce student cognition about task-subject objectives.

Putting it together online: Information need identification for the domain novice user

Domain novice users in the beginning stages of researching a topic find themselves searching for information via information retrieval (IR) systems before they have identified their information need. Pre-Internet access technologies adapted by current IR systems poorly serve these domain novice users, whose behavior might be characterized as rudderless and without a compass. In this article we describe a conceptual design for an information retrieval system that incorporates standard information need identification classification and subject cataloging schemes, called the INIIReye System, and a study that tests the efficacy of the innovative part of the INIIReye System, called the Associative Index. The Associative Index helps the user put together his or her associative thoughts - Vannevar Bushs idea of associative indexing for his Memex machine that he never actually described. For the first time, data from the study reported here quantitatively supports the theoretical notion that the information seekers information need is identified through transformation of his/her knowledge structure (i.e., the seekers cognitive map or perspective on the task for which information is being sought).

Constructing a true LCSH tree of a science and engineering collection

The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is a subject structure used to index large library collections throughout the world. Browsing a collection through LCSH is difficult using current online tools in part because users cannot explore the structure using their existing experience navigating file hierarchies on their hard drives. This is due to inconsistencies in the LCSH structure, which does not adhere to the specific rules defining tree structures. This article proposes a method to adapt the LCSH structure to reflect a real-world collection from the domain of science and engineering. This structure is transformed into a valid tree structure using an automatic process. The analysis of the resulting LCSH tree shows a large and complex structure. The analysis of the distribution of information within the LCSH tree reveals a power law distribution where the vast majority of subjects contain few information items and a few subjects contain the vast majority of the collection.

Exploiting major trends in subject hierarchies for large-scale collection visualization

Many large digital collections are currently organized by subject; however, these useful information organization structures are large and complex, making them difficult to browse. Current online tools and visualization prototypes show small localized subsets and do not provide the ability to explore the predominant patterns of the overall subject structure. This research addresses this issue by simplifying the subject structure using two techniques based on the highly uneven distribution of real-world collections: level compression and child pruning. The approach is demonstrated using a sample of 130K records organized by the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Promising results show that the subject hierarchy can be reduced down to 42% of its initial size, while maintaining access to 81% of the collection. The visual impact is demonstrated using a traditional outline view allowing searchers to dynamically change the amount of complexity that they feel necessary for the tasks at hand.

Tensions in Cataloging: Observations on Standards and Implementation

IntroductionIt is usually agreed that the general objectives for the creation of library catalogs as stated by Cutter in 1876 (1889) and Lubetzky in 1961 (1963, 139, 1st objective) are still valid and relevant, despite the fact that these bibliographic tools are constantly evolving and transforming. The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records model (FRBR) requires that bibliographic data allow end-users to find, identify, select and obtain documents that correspond to expressed search criteria (IFLA, 1998, 8-9). A library catalog can be described as a type of bibliographic file that has the distinctive feature to gather descriptive records for a given library collection, be it physical or virtual. Thus the principal function of a library catalog is to provide bibliographic control for a collection of documents, i.e., to perform the operations by which the information is organized and structured according to one or several established standards in order to render this information easily identifiable and available. The two fundamental objectives of catalogs, identification and retrieval, are usually achieved by creating standardized descriptions by analyzing the content in order to describe the intellectual content, by classifying the items in order to group them in meaningful categories, by adding a variety of controlled access keys, and indexing, in total or in part, the textual content of these descriptions. The fulfillment of these objectives is undoubtedly guided by the creation and the maintenance of bibliographic description and encoding standards (AACR, LCSH, MARC), but is also influenced by the development of new features of online information retrieval systems. As a result, even if the objectives for the creation of library catalogs remain more or less stable over the years, the means available to fulfill these objectives evolve rapidly. Recently, the improvement of text information retrieval techniques and the development of hypertextual interfaces have facilitated the development of more and more sophisticated retrieval features in library catalogs.Coordinating the development and the application of bibliographic dards, on one hand, and the development of text retrieval systems, on the other, is not a small task. The encounter of these two worlds is fairly recent and greatly suffers from a lack of communication and understanding. The rapid developments in the world of text information retrieval bring new opportunities to information systems designers and allow greater freedom to system managers for the local implementation of these systems. Adding new retrieval features often improves the search capabilities in online catalogs. It also seems that the implementation of these new retrieval functions can sometimes have a negative impact on the quality of retrieval, because these features are not always specifically designed for the type of data contained in library catalogs. Unfortunately, these retrieval features are not standardized and may vary considerably from one system to another. It is not possible to adapt bibliographic standards according to every systems design. Nevertheless, there has been an attempt in past years to develop minimal display standards for bibliographic records in catalogs to provide a standard to guide system designers and managers in their work (IFLA, 2003). The perfect system does not exist and it is always necessary to adapt bibliographic standards locally in order to comply with the constraints and restrictions imposed by the system. The parameters selected and applied during the local implementation of these systems will also have an impact on the manner that data are displayed and used, and this in turn may also require internal modifications to the local metadata creation procedures. We are in an evolutionary environment that focuses increasingly on data exchange and collaboration between organizations, where data and system system interoperability is crucial. …

Spatialized information visualizations: a “BASSTEP” approach to application design

Large result sets stemming from topical queries on the Web tend to cause disorientation and are often reduced to a manageable size through successive exclusions (NOTing) and/or restrictions (ANDing) which also reject relevant documents. The information visualization (IV) technique known as spatialization is a scalable automatic process creating a topographical map metaphor of the semantic information space. The domain of IV offers many prototypes, some controlled experiments but few low-cost testing methods which are critical in the early stages of the design process. This communication reports on efforts to adapt the low-cost BASSTEP approach to the evaluation of the IV technique known as spatialization by isolating and evaluating (using paper mock-ups) information features of a spatialized Web corpus in the context of Web IR. Six (6) semi-structured formative interviews provide a list of most expected initial user interpretations of four (4) features and three (3) additional interviews attempt to triangulate the findings when these features are integrated into a single interface mock-up. This work hopes to verify if the application of the BASSTEP approach is applicable to spatialized visualisations early in the design process improving the usability of this visual IR tool.