DAFFODIL Effective Support for Using Digital Libraries

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Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries

DAFFODILEffective Support for Using Digital

Libraries

Norbert Fuhr

University of Duisburg-Essen,

Germany

*Supported by DFG as part of the Research Programme V3D2

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Daffodil concepts

1. Strategic information access support

2. Levels of system support

3. Digital library life cycle

4. Collaboration

5. User-friendly integrated desktop

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1. Strategic information access support

Levels of search activities (Bates 1990): 1. Move: Low-level search function

(e.g. type in search term, view retrieved document)

2. Tactic: several moves to further a search(e.g. broaden/narrow a query)

3. Stratagem: set of actions on a single domain(citation database, tables of contents of journals)

4. Strategy: complete plan for satisfying an information need

(e.g. subject search, browse relevant journals, find referenced articles)

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System architecture

Strategic support in 4 layers

Federated digital libraries of different types

User-Interface

Strategies

Tactics

Moves

Stratagems

DLDLDL

Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

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Moves

Distributed search of data from different Digital Libraries & Web sourcesProvide homogenous access to data and functions~15 sources accessed

User-Interface

Strategies

Tactics

Moves

Stratagems

DLDLDL


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Resultlist


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Combined detail view


Attributes

Links

internal

external

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Tactics

User-Interface

Strategies

Tactics

Moves

Stratagems

DLDLDL

Combine services

Speed up search

Redefine query


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Extract from Result List


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Stratagems

Cover an information domain

Combine all retrieved information & links

User-Interface

Strategies

Tactics

Moves

Stratagems

DLDLDL


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Stratagems on the Desktop

– Subject Search– Author networks– Citation Search– Journal/Conference Run

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Author network based stratagems:

1. Author network browse

2. Ranking a document result set using author centrality

Author Networks

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Citation Search: Reference Tracking A relevant document is

dragged to the tool for citation tracking

Documents that cite or are cited are retrieved

Browsing, Inspection and Navigaton

Drag and Drop

Can be performed iteratively

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Strategy

Complex plan to fullfill a specific task

User-Interface

Strategies

Tactics

Moves

Stratagems

DLDLDL


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2. Levels of system support

0. Rigid system behavior

1. Adaptive system

2. Proactive system

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Adaptivity

1. Agents collect informationLibrary agents: content and technical aspects of connected DLsUser agents: behavior of single users/user group

2. Agents change system behavior based on collected info

Library agents: select preferred DLs,…User agents: offer preferred functions,…

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Proactivity

Agents act without explicit invocation

Implemented as event-condition-action rules, e.g.– when query result is empty, broaden query– suggest related keywords for query– when author name is ambiguous, display

possible completions

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Proactivity

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3. Digital library life cycleResource selection

Organizing items

Evaluation of results

Knowledge generation

Retrieving items

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Collate

Save all digital objects in a structured personal digital library

Awareness: – Keep an eye on my topics– focused crawling (BINGO!)

Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

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Collate

Personal library:Store Objects

• Document Metadata• Fulltexts• Authors• Journals, Conferences• Hyperlinks, Bookmarks• Query formulations


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Personal Library

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Interpret

Annotations to DL objects

Creation of links between DL objects


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Re-Present

(support generation of new information)

Export folders from personal library


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Private

Group

Private

Public

Group

Private

4. Collaboration


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New objects(by other users/

due to profile)

Notification mechanisms(visual markers/

email)

Collation and awareness

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Collaborate interpretation

Annotation threads


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Recommendation

Recommended digital objects through collaboration: – What do others have for me? – Who are the others?– How did others search?


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5. User-friendly integrated desktop

Integrate distributed services and software agents in consistent manner

Provide tool chains to enable users to combine services

Ensure flexible workflow with free choice of starting point

Hide complexity

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Desktop

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Search Search Domain

Specification

Filter Settings and Query Composition

Integrated Result Lists with Draggable Objects

Navigation

Detail Inspection

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6. Evaluation

Evaluation with 28 subjectsMethods: questionnaire, logging, videoTasks of different complexityMajor results: – Only for very simple tasks (known item

retrieval), other methods may be faster– Complex tasks are supported very

effectively

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7. Summary

Daffodil concepts• Strategic information access support• Levels of system support• Digital library life cycle• Collaboration• User-friendly integrated desktop

User Store

Interaction

UnderstandingQueries

Massaging Results &

User Annotation

Transformations

Discovery

AutomaticCapture

InterpretiveCapture

ManagingPersonalLibraries

DWIM

CognitiveCompletion

Chunking

Representational Model of Common Elements

Collaboration

[Larsen & Wactlar: Summary of NSF WS on Future Directions for DLs, 2003]

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Outlook

Further research– Support strategies– Path model: define/learn successful usage

patterns– New application domains:

• additional object types, • support re-present stage

Application for large user communities

Try Daffodil: http://www.daffodil.de