There are several issues at play within Enterprise Search (ES), a major one is that enterprises are finding it difficult to retrieve their data using current ES solutions. This research is a step towards improving this. By designing,... more
There are several issues at play within Enterprise Search (ES), a major one is that enterprises are finding it difficult to retrieve their data using current ES solutions. This research is a step towards improving this. By designing, implementing and evaluating a system for Enterprise Information Retrieval, with an improved search result presentation technique, which assists users during search tasks. This was accomplished by researching current ES systems and search result presentation techniques. This research resulted in finding two forms of document summaries, namely a textual document summary technique: Top Ranking Sentences (TRS) and a visual document summary technique: Thumbnails. These document summaries have been designed to support a user during information seeking activity. The system developed was named Basora Enterprise Search (BES) and was developed using an agile software development approach. It incorporates the TRS and Thumbnail into its search result presentation technique. The BES prototype was put through both a performance and user evaluation. The first test indicated that BES performs more or less equal to the Commercial Enterprise Search Solution IBM Omnifind 8.5, while providing the user with two extra forms of document summaries. The user evaluation focussed on evaluation the effectiveness of the new search result presentation technique. The results of the user evaluation show that there are various search tasks where the addition of these summary elements has a positive effect on relevance assessment and query reformulation. This research indicates that the BES system actually helps a user assess the relevance of a document, minimizing the amount of documents that need to be opened before the user finds the desired one. It also indicates that the additional visual and textual document summaries assist the user when reformulating a search query, decreasing the time it takes a user to complete a search task.
ABSTRACT. The CIC consortium includes 12 major Midwestern Uni-versities. Their libraries have decided to share the cost of a joint project (2003-2006) aimed at better understanding the mechanisms by which emerging technologies and... more
ABSTRACT. The CIC consortium includes 12 major Midwestern Uni-versities. Their libraries have decided to share the cost of a joint project (2003-2006) aimed at better understanding the mechanisms by which emerging technologies and standards can facilitate metadata sharing and Muriel Foulonneau is Visiting Assistant Professor of Library Administration and
During online search, the user's expectations often differ from those of the author. This is known as the "intention gap" and is particularly problematic when searching for and discriminating between online video content. An author uses... more
During online search, the user's expectations often differ from those of the author. This is known as the "intention gap" and is particularly problematic when searching for and discriminating between online video content. An author uses description and meta-data tags to label their content, but often cannot predict alternate interpretations or appropriations of their work. To address this intention gap, we present ThumbReels, a concept for query-sensitive video previews generated from crowdsourced, temporally defined semantic tagging. Further, we supply an open-source tool that supports on-the-fly temporal tagging of videos, whose output can be used for later search queries. A first user study validates the tool and concept. We then present a second study that shows participants found ThumbReels to better represent search terms than contemporary preview techniques.
