Search results

One of the biggest concerns of modern information retrieval systems is reducing the user effort required for manual traversal and filtering of long matching document lists. Thus, the first goal of this research is to propose an improved scheme for representation of search results. Further, it aims to explore the impact of various user information needs on the searching process with the aim of finding a unified searching approach well suited for different query types and retrieval tasks.

The BoW online bibliographical catalogue is based on a hierarchical concept index to which entries are linked. The key idea is that searching in the hierarchical catalogue should take advantage of the catalogue structure and return matching topics from the hierarchy, rather than just a long list of entries. Likewise, when new entries are inserted, a search for relevant topics to which they should be linked is required. Therefore, a similar hierarchical scheme for query‐topic matching can be applied for both tasks.

The experiments show that different query types used for the above tasks are best treated by different topic ranking functions. To further examine this phenomenon a user study was conducted, where various statistical weighting factors were incorporated and their impact on the performance for different query types was measured. Finally, it is found that the mixed strategy that applies the most suitable ranking function to each query type yielded a significant increase in precision relative to the baseline and to employing any examined strategy in isolation on the entire set of user queries.

The main contributions of this paper are: the alternative approach for compact and concise representation of search results, which were implemented in the BoW online bibliographical catalogue; and the unified or mixed strategy for search and result representation applying the most suitable ranking function to each query type, which produced superior results compared to different single‐strategy‐based approaches.

In recent years, aceted search has been a well-accepted approach for many academic libraries across the United States. This chapter is based on the author’s dissertation and work of many years on faceted library catalogs. Not to hope to be exhaustive, the author’s aim is to provide sufficient depth and breadth to offer a useful resource to researchers, librarians, and practitioners about faceted search used in library catalogs.

The chapter reviews different aspects of faceted search used in academic libraries, from the theory, the history, to the implementation. It starts with the history of online public access catalogs (OPACs) and how people search with OPACs. Then it introduces the classic facet theory and its relationship with faceted search. At last, various academic research projects on faceted search, especially faceted library catalogs, are briefly reviewed. These projects include both implementation studies and the evaluation studies.

The results indicate that most searchers were able to understand the concept of facets naturally and easily. Compared to text searches, however, faceted searches were complementary and supplemental, and used only by a small group of searchers.

The author hopes that the facet feature has not only been cosmetic but the answer to the call for the next generation catalog for academic libraries. The results of this research are intended to inform librarians and library information technology (IT) staff to improve the effectiveness of the catalogs to help people find information they need more efficiently.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.

The study focused on online public access catalog (OPAC) users’ cross-device search behavior. The purpose of this paper is to understand the characteristics of cross-device OPAC searches, and to identify query reformulation (QR) patterns during device transitions.

The transaction log from a university library, spanning six months, was used to conduct the quantitative analysis. The query vocabulary richness, which refers to the average number of unique words each query contains in a search session, can evaluate query diversity, and contribute to the analysis of QR.

The results show that PC-PC transition is the most important pattern of device transition. The time interval of device transition was different to the time interval of transitions in web searches. Short device transitions mainly occurred in daytime, and the number of transitions that occurred in less than one minute was higher than on the web. Searches for Industry and Technology triggered the most device transitions, and the users tended to choose the same search field. In addition, the authors made a detailed analysis of the reasons for same-type device transitions and different-type device transitions. Furthermore, the authors focused on the characteristics of adjacent QR patterns. The authors not only refined the concept of cross-device to include the same-type device transition, but also summarized the characteristics of the cross-device QR patterns, which can be used to predict post-switch queries.

This study extends research into cross-device interaction and cross-device search to the domain of digital library research. The authors also introduced QR perspective on cross-device interaction on OPAC.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of search query volume data in forecasting demand for hotel rooms and identify the best econometric forecasting model.

The authors used search volume data on five related queries to predict demand for hotel rooms in a specific tourist city and employed three ARMA family models and their ARMAX counterparts to evaluate the usefulness of these data. The authors also evaluated three widely used causal econometric models – ADL, TVP, and VAR – for comparison.

All three ARMAX models consistently outperformed their ARMA counterparts, validating the value of search volume data in facilitating the accurate prediction of demand for hotel rooms. When the three causal econometric models were included for forecasting competition, the ARX model produced the most accurate forecasts, suggesting its usefulness in forecasting demand for hotel rooms.

To demonstrate the usefulness of this data type, the authors focused on one tourist city with five specific tourist‐related queries. Future studies could focus on other aspects of tourist consumption and on more destinations, using a larger number of queries to increase accuracy.

Search volume data are an early indicator of travelers' interest and could be used to predict various types of tourist consumption and activities, such as hotel occupancy, spending, and event attendance.

The paper's findings validate the value of search query volume data in predicting hotel room demand, and the paper is the first of its kind in the field of tourism and hospitality research.

Describes the Okapi projects and Okapi′s development as an experimental online catalogue system over ten years. The first Okapi project in 1984 introduced “best match” retrieval and focused on the user interface design. The second investigated word stemming, spelling correction and cross‐reference tables as retrieval aids. A comparative study of two library catalogues was undertaken in 1987, while in 1988 query expansion and relevance feedback were introduced and evaluated by laboratory tests. Live evaluation of automatic query expansion in an online catalogue and an online database was carried out in 1990. In 1993, subject enhancement of bibliographic records was investigated. The latest project has examined the design of a graphical user interface to support interactive query expansion. Discusses the research and evaluation of each project.

This paper reports on a comparative evaluation of two computerised reference retrieval systems, INSTRUCT and PLEXUS. Instruct is a statistically‐based system based on best match searching and automatic index term weighting while Plexus uses expert systems techniques to improve access to a conventional Boolean search system. After an introduction to the retrieval techniques used by the two systems, their retrieval effectiveness is compared using a set of nineteen queries and 512 documents on the subject of gardening. The best results were obtained by using the terms suggested by the Plexus system as the basis for an Instruct search.

An automatic query expansion (AQE) facility in an online catalogue was evaluated in an operational library setting. The Okapi experimental system had other features including: ranked output ‘best match’ keyword searching, automatic stemming, spelling normalisation and cross referencing as well as relevance feedback. A combination of transaction log analysis, search replays, questionnaires and interviews was used for data collection. Findings show that contrary to previous results, AQE was beneficial in a substantial number of searches. User intentions, the effectiveness of the ‘best match’ search and user interaction were identified as the main factors affecting the take‐up of the query expansion facility.

An online library catalogue served as a testbed to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi probabilistic term weighting retrieval system. The facility was implemented in a graphical user interface (gui) environment using a game‐board metaphor for the search process, and allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. The take‐up of the interactive query expansion option was found to be lower, and its retrieval performance less effective, compared to previous tests featuring automatic query expansion. Contributory factors including the number, presentation and source of terms are discussed.