Machine assisted browsing for the naive user

Fox, Mark S.; Palay, Andrew J.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1111 Copy

Description

Title

Machine assisted browsing for the naive user

Author(s)

• Fox, Mark S.
• Palay, Andrew J.

Issue Date

1980

Keyword(s)

• Libraries --Automation
• Library science --Data processing
• Public services (Libraries)
• Browsing

Abstract

"The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a radically different approach to the storage and retrieval of information can result in: (1) a reduction in the need for user sophistication in the use of information systems, and (2) the support of a browsing approach to information system searching. Our approach promotes the view that information system databases should be structured for people, not machines. Many of the problems associated with information systems occur precisely at the interface between the user and information storage. The purpose of the interface is to map user requests onto the database structure. The more ""machine-like"" the interface, the faster the mapping. As interfaces become more sophisticated (i.e., allow the user to express requests in a more natural form such as natural language), more processing is required to carry out the mapping. And as processing time increases, certain types of search processes (e.g., browsing) become increasingly difficult to provide at a reasonable response rate. Until the time when processing power can meet the real-time needs of system users, information system design and construction should conform to user needs, meaning that the physical structure should be tailored to the user's view (logical structure) of the database, reducing mapping and search time. In the following discussion, we will describe the BROWSE system, a database browsing system for computer- naive users. The primary application of the BROWSE system is to allow browsing access to the Carnegie- Mellon University Computer Science Department library collection, but it can be used for other applications, such as the automated dictionary."

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (17th : 1980)

ISSN

0069-4789

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1111

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

This research was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research under contract No. N0001 4-76-0874, and, in part, by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), Arpa Order No. 3597, monitored by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory Contract 533615-78-C-1551.

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Copyright 1980 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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