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On‐going technological advances may soon allow the development of an affordable, personal, easy‐to‐use, all‐purpose information storage and retrieval technology similar to the Memex system described by Vannevar Bush. This paper proposes an updated design for Memex (‘Memex‐TV’) based on high‐capacity data networks, multimedia and new user interface technologies. It is argued that technology such as Memex‐TV may well develop as a spin‐off from advances in entertainment technology. Section 6, ‘An evening with Memex‐TV’, illustrates the possible future interweaving of information retrieval and entertainment. Finally, it is argued that librarians need to consider entertainment technology's potential to influence the future of libraries more seriously.

With the developments of e-commerce markets, novel recommendation technologies are becoming an essential part of many online retailers’ economic models to help drive online sales. Initially, the purpose of this paper is to undertake an investigation of apparel recommendations in the commercial market in order to verify the research value and significance. Then, this paper reviews apparel recommendation techniques and systems through academic research, aiming to acquaint apparel recommendation context, summarize the pros and cons of various research methods, identify research gaps and eventually propose new research solutions to benefit apparel retailing market.

This study utilizes empirical research drawing on 130 academic publications indexed from online databases. The authors introduce a three-layer descriptor for searching articles, and analyse retrieval results via distribution graphics of years, publications and keywords.

This study classified high-tech integrated apparel systems into 3D CAD systems, personalised design systems and recommendation systems. The authors’ research interest is focussed on recommendation system. Four types of models were found, namely clothes searching/retrieval, wardrobe recommendation, fashion coordination and intelligent recommendation systems. The forth type, smart systems, has raised more awareness in apparel research as it is equipped with advanced functions and application scenarios to satisfy customers. Despite various computational algorithms tested in system modelling, existing research is lacking in terms of apparel and users profiles research. Thus, from the review, the authors have identified and proposed a more complete set of key features for describing both apparel and users profiles in a recommendation system.

Based on previous studies, this is the first review paper on this topic in this subject field. The summarised work and the proposed new research will inspire future researchers with various knowledge backgrounds, especially, from a design perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness among manufacturing researchers and practitioners of the potential of Bayesian networks (BNs) to enhance decision making in those parts of the manufacturing domain where uncertainty is a key characteristic. In doing so, the paper describes the development of an intelligent decision support system (DSS) to help operators in Motorola to diagnose and correct faults during the process of product system testing.

The intelligent (DSS) combines BNs and an intelligent user interface to produce multi‐media advice for operators.

Surveys show that the system is effective in considerably reducing fault correction times for most operators and most fault types and in helping inexperienced operators to approach the performance levels of experienced operators.

Such efficiency improvements are of obvious value in manufacturing. In this particular case, additional benefit was derived when the product testing facility was moved from the UK to China as the system was able to help the new operators to get close to the historical performance level of experienced operators.

Construction companies are increasingly adopting sensing technologies like laser scanners, making it necessary to upskill the future workforce in this area. However, limited jobsite access hinders experiential learning of laser scanning, necessitating the need for an alternative learning environment. Previously, the authors explored mixed reality (MR) as an alternative learning environment for laser scanning, but to promote seamless learning, such learning environments must be proactive and intelligent. Toward this, the potentials of classification models for detecting user difficulties and learning stages in the MR environment were investigated in this study.

The study adopted machine learning classifiers on eye-tracking data and think-aloud data for detecting learning stages and interaction difficulties during the usability study of laser scanning in the MR environment.

The classification models demonstrated high performance, with neural network classifier showing superior performance (accuracy of 99.9%) during the detection of learning stages and an ensemble showing the highest accuracy of 84.6% for detecting interaction difficulty during laser scanning.

The findings of this study revealed that eye movement data possess significant information about learning stages and interaction difficulties and provide evidence of the potentials of smart MR environments for improved learning experiences in construction education. The research implication further lies in the potential of an intelligent learning environment for providing personalized learning experiences that often culminate in improved learning outcomes. This study further highlights the potential of such an intelligent learning environment in promoting inclusive learning, whereby students with different cognitive capabilities can experience learning tailored to their specific needs irrespective of their individual differences.

The classification models will help detect learners requiring additional support to acquire the necessary technical skills for deploying laser scanners in the construction industry and inform the specific training needs of users to enhance seamless interaction with the learning environment.

Educators recognize that group work and physical involvement with learning materials can greatly enhance the understanding and retention of difficult concepts. As a result, math manipulatives ‐ such as pattern blocks and number lines ‐ have increasingly been making their way into classrooms and children’s museums. Yet without the constant guidance of a teacher, students can easily become distracted, confused, or frustrated. Math games with tangible user interfaces can address the needs of the modern learning environment by providing the guidance that a teacher would while allowing students to work together in a physical environment. This paper describes how math games with tangible user interfaces can be rapidly developed using a library of functions that were designed specifically for tracking visual tags in math games. The paper also discusses pedagogical principles and an approach to designing and developing games that utilize tangible technologies. Examples of math games that have been prototyped this way are presented. The paper concludes with a study that suggests that this approach helps children to stay focused, think about math problems in new ways, and complete the problem at hand. It also suggests that tangible math games may help children to develop problem‐solving skills that transfer to similar problems.

This paper aims to present an overview of the challenges encountered in integrating visual search interfaces into digital libraries and repositories. These challenges come in various forms, including information visualisation, the use of knowledge organisation systems and metadata quality. The main purpose of this study is the identification of criteria for the evaluation and integration of visual search interfaces, proposing guidelines and recommendations to improve information retrieval tasks with emphasis on the education-al context.

The information included in this study was collected based on a systematic literature review approach. The main information sources were explored in several digital libraries, including Science Direct, Scopus, ACM and IEEE, and include journal articles, conference proceedings, books, European project reports and deliverables and PhD theses published in an electronic format. A total of 142 studies comprised the review.

There are several issues that authors did not fully discuss in this literature review study; more specific, aspects associated with access of digital resources in digital libraries and repositories based on human computer interaction, i.e. usability and learnability of user interfaces; design of a suitable navigation method of search based on simple knowledge organisation schemes; and the use of usefulness of visual search interfaces to locate relevant resources.

The main steps for carrying out a systematic review are drawn from health care; this methodology is not commonly used in fields such as digital libraries and repositories. The authors aimed to apply the fundamentals of the systematic literature review methodology considering the context of this study. Additionally, there are several aspects of accessibility that were not considered in the study, such as accessibility to content for disabled people as defined by ISO/IEC 40500:2012.

No other systematic literature reviews have been conducted in this field. The research presents an in-depth analysis of the criteria associated with searching and navigation methods based on the systematic literature review approach. The analysis is relevant for researchers in the field of digital library and repository creation in that it may direct them to considerations in designing and implementing visual search interfaces based on the use of information visualisation.

InTEXT Systems delivers software products and technologies for content‐based routing, retrieval, development and presentation for mission‐critical workgroup, Internet and World Wide Web applications. The organisation is backed by over 12 years of focused research and development in the areas of intelligent analysis, routing and retrieval. The tools described in this article are already in use by companies such as American Express, Wollongong, Pacific Bell, State of California and Uniplex software. A complete object‐oriented toolset covering all areas of online text management brings significant benefits to developers, through greatly reduced programming effort, and to end‐users, with intelligent interfaces helping them to cut through the information overload.

Providing enhanced access and added value to electronic documents (e‐documents) will require interfaces that effectively mediate between the information seeking needs of the users and the information that the e‐document has to offer. A proposed information environment (PIE) to support effective and creative use of e‐documents to fulfil users’ various information tasks and needs is presented. Providing a suite of novel features and interactive tools that can be flexibly combined, the PIE allows users to apply multiple novel ways to intuitively query and navigate information in an e‐document. The querying and browsing processes in the PIE are supported by various interactive and visualisation techniques. Users work within a visually sovereign, integrated environment for information gathering and organising, based on navigable, fractional information objects that are also affiliated with rich metadata and additional layers of value‐adding information. This paper describes the conceptual design of the PIE and uses a representative scenario to show how the PIE is likely to be used for interacting with electronic journals (e‐journals) and the ability of the proposed environment to provide enhanced user interaction and value‐adding.

After a general introduction of Pica, with a short discussion of library co‐operation, organisation, Pica's history, and Pica systems, the Open Library Network (OLN) project is discussed. The Open Library Network will bring together a new network concept and a fully revised version of the Pica library systems. Three infrastructures are needed: technical, functional and organisational. This means networking, new functionality and organisation of the OLN implementation in the libraries. The network (VTP and SURFnet) is discussed, functional improvements (user interface, integration, intelligent bibliographic workstations, new OPAC, interlibrary lending' in relation to interconnected OPACs) are discussed and the decisions for implementation of OLN are presented (access authority, routing, costs). The article closes with a short presentation of related projects and future developments.

This article is a contribution to the development of a comprehensive interdisciplinary theory of LIS in the hope of giving a more precise evaluation of its current problems. The article describes an interdisciplinary framework for lis, especially information retrieval (IR), in a way that goes beyond the cognitivist ‘information processing paradigm’. The main problem of this paradigm is that its concept of information and language does not deal in a systematic way with how social and cultural dynamics set the contexts that determine the meaning of those signs and words that are the basic tools for the organisation and retrieving of documents in LIS. The paradigm does not distinguish clearly enough between how the computer manipulates signs and how librarians work with meaning in practice when they design and run document mediating systems. The ‘cognitive viewpoint’ of Ingwersen and Belkin makes clear that information is not objective, but rather only potential, until it is interpreted by an individual mind with its own internal mental world view and purposes. It facilitates further study of the social pragmatic conditions for the interpretation of concepts. This approach is not yet fully developed. The domain analytic paradigm of Hjørland and Albrechtsen is a conceptual realisation of an important aspect of this area. In the present paper we make a further development of a non‐reductionistic and interdisciplinary view of information and human social communication by texts in the light of second‐order cybernetics, where information is seen as ‘a difference which makes a difference’ for a living autopoietic (self‐organised, self‐creating) system. Other key ideas are from the semiotics of Peirce and also Warner. This is the understanding of signs as a triadic relation between an object, a representation and an interpretant. Information is the interpretation of signs by living, feeling, self‐organising, biological, psychological and social systems. Signification is created and con‐trolled in a cybernetic way within social systems and is communicated through what Luhmann calls generalised media, such as science and art. The modern socio‐linguistic concept ‘discourse communities’ and Wittgenstein's ‘language game’ concept give a further pragmatic description of the self‐organising system's dynamic that determines the meaning of words in a social context. As Blair and Liebenau and Backhouse point out in their work it is these semantic fields of signification that are the true pragmatic tools of knowledge organ‐isation and document retrieval. Methodologically they are the first systems to be analysed when designing document mediating systems as they set the context for the meaning of concepts. Several practical and analytical methods from linguistics and the sociology of knowledge can be used in combination with standard methodology to reveal the significant language games behind document mediation.