JungWon Yoon

Image needs in the context of image use: An exploratory study

As a way of understanding the image needs of users, researchers in the image retrieval field have investigated contextual factors affecting image needs and search behaviours. In terms of both general users’ groups and non-domain-specific collections on the web, the purpose of this study is to investigate how image needs are interwoven with intended uses which are in varying degrees of image use purposes. Thus, the image-seeking questions posted in a social Q&A service were analysed for their content. The findings of this study indicate that image uses as sources of objects are found more frequently than image uses as sources of data. Moreover, in order to analyse a more detailed underlying structure of image needs and uses, image attributes were examined in terms of three categories including semantics (e.g. ofness and aboutness), non-visual features (e.g. bibliographic information) and syntactic features (e.g. focal point). This study indicates that abstract attributes and specific attributes were distinctively recognized depending on image uses, even though proportion generic attributes were found more frequently. Users are likely to seek images using abstract attributes when they intend to use images as sources of object and specific attributes when using the images as sources of data. More importantly, among the contextual attributes, a similarity component was found to be a universal attribute that was used in all seven image uses, while the attributes in the non-visual and syntactic categories were not frequently used. The findings of this study can be applied to image retrieval systems in terms of improving image indexing practices and expanding search interfaces.

Towards a user-oriented thesaurus for non-domain-specific image collections

This study explored how user-supplied tags can be applied to designing a thesaurus that reflects the unique features of image documents. Tags from the popular image-sharing Web site Flickr were examined in terms of two central components of a thesaurus-selected concepts and their semantic relations-as well as the features of image documents. Shatfords facet category and Rosch et al.s basic-level theory were adopted for examining concepts to be included in a thesaurus. The results suggested that the best approach to Color and Generic category descriptors is to focus on basic-level terms and to include frequently used superordinate- and subordinate-level terms. In the Abstract category, it was difficult to specify a set of abstract terms that can be used consistently and dominantly, so it was suggested to enhance browsability using hierarchical and associative relations. Study results also indicate a need for greater inclusion of Specific category terms, which were shown to be an important tool in establishing related tags. Regarding semantic relations, the study indicated that in the identification of related terms, it is important that descriptors not be limited only to the category in which a main entry belongs but broadened to include terms from other categories as well. Although future studies are needed to ensure the effectiveness of this user-oriented approach, this study yielded promising results, demonstrating that user-supplied tags can be a helpful tool in selecting concepts to be included in a thesaurus and in identifying semantic relations among the selected concepts. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide a practical guideline for designing a thesaurus for image documents that takes into account both the unique features of these documents and the unique information-seeking behaviors of general users.

An Exploration of Needs for Connotative Messages during Image Search Process

This study aims to provide an understanding of the information seeking process for image documents by focusing on needs for connotative messages. For this purpose, this study attempted to investigate and compare three stages of the image search process in terms of use of image attributes. The three stages of the image search process are identified as initiation, representation and selection, and image attribute levels are defined as color, denotative, and connotative attributes. Data was collected from a survey questionnaire composed of Likert scales, open questionnaires, and Semantic Differential scales. The study found that while color, denotative, and connotative attributes were all considered important by users, color itself did not have critical impact during the representing and selecting stages. Denotative and connotative attributes were important across the overall search process and users employed diverse denotative and connotative terms for finding a satisfactory image under a given task. This study also demonstrated that affective attributes of an image can be represented with reduced dimensions using Semantic Differential scales, and that reduced dimensions can be used to indicate more meaningful and relevant images.

An Exploratory Analysis of International Students’ Information Needs and Uses

Focusing on information behaviours in the context of everyday life, this study seeks to explore the information needs and uses of international students—one of the fastest-growing student groups within the university—in their daily activities. Using data from 60 respondents to the survey questionnaire and a total of 263 information activities from the online diary survey of 28 participants, this study investigated four research questions regarding information needs, information sources, the digital devices used for information searches, and the relationships between information needs, information sources, and digital devices in international students’ daily information environments. The findings demonstrate that international students with diverse information needs sought information from a wide range of information sources, including search engines and human-mediated sources, using portable digital devices for their information searches. This study revealed that participants used different information sources and digital devices depending on the type of information needs. The findings provide useful insights into the information services available to international students in a higher education context.Les étudiants internationaux constituent une des populations dont la croissance est la plus forte aux États-Unis. Cette étude, en mettant l’accent sur ses comportements informationnels dans le contexte de la vie quotidienne, se propose d’explorer les besoins informationnels des étudiants internationaux et l’utilisation qu’ils en font dans leurs activités quotidiennes. À partir des données provenant de 60 répondants au questionnaire d’enquête et un total de 263 activités d’information obtenues par l’enquête du journal en ligne de 28 participants, notre étude a examiné quatre questions de recherche : les besoins informationnels, les sources d’information, les appareils numériques utilisés pour la recherche d’information, et les relations entre les besoins informationnels, les sources d’information, et les appareils numériques utilisés dans les environnements informationnels quotidiens des étudiants internationaux. Les résultats de cette étude démontrent que les étudiants internationaux avec divers besoins d’information ont utilisé un large éventail de sources d’information, y compris des moteurs de recherche et des sources utilisant une médiation humaine, et qu’ils ont utilisé des appareils numériques portables pour leurs recherches d’information. Notre étude a révélé que les participants ont utilisé des sources d’information et des appareils numériques différents selon le type de besoin d’information, et elle fournit des indications utiles sur les services d’information disponibles pour les étudiants internationaux dans le contexte de l’enseignement supérieur.

A categorical comparison between user-supplied tags and web search queries for images

Although social tagging has received attention in the LIS field as a promising information organization mechanism, there is little research comparing user-supplied tags and search queries. For using user-supplied tags as an alternative or supplementary tool for existing image representation schemes, there should be evidence which demonstrate to what extent there are similarities and/or differences between user-supplied tags and search terms. Based on these considerations, this study investigates categorical differences between user supplied tags and Web search queries. Using Shatfords categories, the study identifies categorical characteristics of tags and queries. Using the 1st level of categories, a rough comparison was made. User-supplied tags contain Generic terms for the majority, but Web search queries include Specific terms, rather than Generic terms. For a more detailed comparison between tags and queries, the 2nd level of categories from Shatfords was adopted. In most of subcategories, the categorical comparisons between tags and queries demonstrate considerable differences. Although this result is based on a small size of data sets, the result of this study can impact the way of social tagging systems and indexing/ranking systems of Web search engines for images.

An investigation on Graphical Abstracts use in scholarly articles

Abstract Recently, Graphical Abstracts (GA) are increasingly being used in scholarly articles in order to enhance browsing and aid in paper selection. This study aims to demonstrate how GAs have been adopted in the social sciences. In the social sciences, GAs appeared for the first time in 2010, and from 2011 to 2015 a 350% increase was observed. Forty-seven percent of journals related to the social sciences have published at least one article with a GA. Among the social science disciplines, social and economic geography has most actively adopted GAs, whereas, in law, GAs are still not used. Authors use GAs to present: 1) an overview of the article, including the research process and key results (sometimes with background), 2) the key results of the study, 3) the research process or methods used, and 4) the background of the study. Authors re-use the visualizations in their manuscripts, integrate or modify the visualizations in their manuscripts, or create a new visualization for the GA. Depending on the content of GAs, different types of visualizations are used; for example, charts are mainly used to represent results and diagrams are used to present research methods or provide an overview of the article. Areas of future research into GAs are suggested.

How images are conversed on Twitter

In a way of understanding how people communicate with others through images on Twitter, 174 Boston Bombing related tweet messages with images were analyzed to identify the characteristics of tweet message, senders, and influential tweet messages. According to the coding schemes on tweet messages, image uses, and senders, several features were demonstrated. People tweet primarily to express their opinions, share information, and report news. Images in those tweets were used differently depending on the categories of tweet messages. Major types of tweet senders were media and individuals, different categories of tweeter messages were found depending on types of tweeter senders. In addition, whether tweets are influential (highly retweeted) or not shows different patterns in terms of tweet message categories and senders.

Engineering an image‐browsing environment: re‐purposing existing denotative descriptors

Purpose – The paper provides a theory base for deriving connotative descriptors for photographs from existing denotative descriptors, and then demonstrates a model for enhancing browsing within image collections by providing a tool for carving up the searching space.Design/methodology/approach – The paper conceptually explores the nature of iconic messages contained in an image by adopting semiotics as a theoretical tool. A problem of image retrieval is identified as loss of connotative messages during the image representation process. The paper proposes an image‐retrieval model utilizing an association thesaurus that facilitates the assignment of connotative index terms by making use of denotative index terms of an image. A series of experiments are performed for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed model.Findings – Experimental results demonstrate that the association thesaurus improves image‐retrieval effectiveness by increasing the recall of connotatively related image documents as well as the...

The Current State and Recommendations for Data Citation

학술 커뮤니티 내에서 논문의 인용은 보편적인 규범으로 자리 잡은 데 비해 데이터의 인용은 아직 초보적인 단계에 머물러 있다. 이를 개선하기 위해 제기되고 있는 데이터 인용의 필요성 및 원칙과 가이드라인에 대해서 살펴보았다. 또한 데이터 인용체계 구축 사례에서는 데이터 인용 요소들을 정의하고 서비스를 제공하는 DataCite, Dataverse Network, Data Citation Index 사례를 중심으로 살펴보았다. 마지막으로 한국종합사회조사 데이터 인용 분석을 통해 국내 데이터세트 인용/이용 정보 제공 실태를 조사하였다.

An extensible approach to interoperability testing: The use of special diagnostic records in the context of Z39.50 and online library catalogs

Presentation discussing the use of special diagnostic records in the context of Z39.50 and online library catalogs.