ASK FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: PART I. BACKGROUND AND THEORY

TLDR

The project is grounded in the premise that information needs cannot be precisely specified, that user problem statements can be elicited to derive anomalous states of knowledge (ASKs), that ASKs have distinct classes, and that IR systems should be based on the user's ASK, with Part I outlining this background and theory. The study aims to design an interactive information‑retrieval system that determines structural representations of ASKs underlying information needs and resolves these anomalies through diverse retrieval strategies on a database of structurally compatible documents. The authors employed a free‑form interview technique to elicit problem statements, applied statistical word‑co‑occurrence analysis to derive network representations of these statements and abstracts, used structural.

Abstract

We report the results of a British Library Research and Development Department‐funded design study for an interactive information retrieval system which will determine structural representations of the anomalous states of knowledge (ASKs) underlying information needs, and attempt to resolve the anomalies through a variety of retrieval strategies performed on a database of documents represented in compatible structural formats. Part I discusses the background to the project and the theory underlying it, Part II (next issue) presents our methods, results and conclusions. Basic premises of the project were: that information needs are not in principle precisely specifiable; that it is possible to elicit problem statements from information system users from which representations of the ASK underlying the need can be derived; that there are classes of ASKs; and, that all elements of information retrieval systems ought to be based on the user's ASK. We have developed a relatively freeform interview technique for eliciting problem statements, and a statistical word co‐occurrence analysis for deriving network representations of the problem statements and abstracts. Structural characteristics of the representations have been used to determine classes of ASKs, and both ASK and information structures have been evaluated by, respectively, users and authors. Some results are: that interviewing appears to be a satisfactory technique for eliciting problem statements from which ASKs can be determined; that the statistical analysis produces structures which are generally appropriate both for documents and problem statements; that ASKs thus represented can be usefully classified according to their structural characteristics; and, that of thirty‐five subjects, only two had ASKs for which traditional ‘best match’ retrieval would be intuitively appropriate. The results of the design study indicate that at least some of our premises are reasonable, and that an ASK‐based information retrieval system is at least feasible.