Emerald | Program: electronic library and information systems

DBpedia and the live extraction of structured data from Wikipedia

Mohamed Morsey, Jens Lehmann, Sören Auer, Claus Stadler, Sebastian Hellmann — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – DBpedia extracts structured information from Wikipedia, interlinks it with other knowledge bases and freely publishes the results on the web using Linked Data and SPARQL. However, the DBpedia release process is heavyweight and releases are sometimes based on several months old data. DBpedia-Live solves this problem by providing a live synchronization method based on the update stream of Wikipedia. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Wikipedia provides DBpedia with a continuous stream of updates, i.e. a stream of articles, which were recently updated. DBpedia-Live processes that stream on the fly to obtain RDF data and stores the extracted data back to DBpedia. DBpedia-Live publishes the newly added/deleted triples in files, in order to enable synchronization between the DBpedia endpoint and other DBpedia mirrors. Findings – During the realization of DBpedia-Live the authors learned that it is crucial to process Wikipedia updates in a priority queue. Recently-updated Wikipedia articles should have the highest priority, over mapping-changes and unmodified pages. An overall finding is that there are plenty of opportunities arising from the emerging Web of Data for librarians. Practical implications – DBpedia had and has a great effect on the Web of Data and became a crystallization point for it. Many companies and researchers use DBpedia and its public services to improve their applications and research approaches. The DBpedia-Live framework improves DBpedia further by timely synchronizing it with Wikipedia, which is relevant for many use cases requiring up-to-date information. Originality/value – The new DBpedia-Live framework adds new features to the old DBpedia-Live framework, e.g. abstract extraction, ontology changes, and changesets publication.

Evaluating search engines: A comparative study between international and Greek SE by Greek librarians

Emmanouel Garoufallou — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – The use of search engines is the most widely acceptable way for information foraging on the net. Their wide use as an information retrieval tool has created the need for their evaluation as a means of improving their performance. This research attempts to record Greek librarians' views on search engines: their performance and characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 16 librarians were asked to search for a specific topic using eight search engines; four international (google.com, altavista.com, yahoo.com, exalead.com) and four Greek (google.gr (searching only for Greek text), in.gr, robby.gr, find.gr). Eight questionnaires were completed by each participant; one for every search engine. A total of 128 initial searches were performed by the librarians, followed by 86 further searches with changed search terms. The librarians recorded their experiences in retrieving information and evaluated the first 20 results according to the criteria of precision, relevancy of the retrieved records and the way the results were displayed by each search tool. Findings – Analysis of the results leads to conclusions about librarians' familiarity with search engines and their views on the retrieved information. The results indicated that participants were satisfied by the presentation, the visualization, the quality and value of results and they were very satisfied with the search engines' interfaces. Thus, most retrieved items were relevant and so the degree of precision was satisfactory. Users preferred mainly international search engines rather than Greek search engines. It was evident that most librarians were very satisfied with the performance of the search engines and felt that their queries had been answered successfully. Originality/value – The paper presents one of the few studies regarding international and Greek search engines and their use by librarians. The study gathered data with regard to the views of Greek librarians on the use of search engines and their characteristics. In addition, it recorded the attitude of librarians to both the search process and subsequent information retrieval, using Greek and international search engines. It compared different search engines and studied parameters like quality, precision, presentation and value of the search results. This research could form the basis of further study of librarians' behavior in the use of search engines for satisfying their information needs and comparison of information retrieval systems.

Semantic storyboard of judicial debates: a novel multimedia summarization environment

E. Fersini, F. Sartori — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – The need of tools for content analysis, information extraction and retrieval of multimedia objects in their native form is strongly emphasized into the judicial domain: digital videos represent a fundamental informative source of events occurring during judicial proceedings that should be stored, organized and retrieved in short time and with low cost. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – In this context the JUMAS system, stem from the homonymous European Project (www.jumasproject.eu), takes up the challenge of exploiting semantics and machine learning techniques towards a better usability of multimedia judicial folders. Findings – In this paper one of the most challenging issues addressed by the JUMAS project is described: extracting meaningful abstracts of given judicial debates in order to efficiently access salient contents. In particular, the authors present an ontology enhanced multimedia summarization environment able to derive a synthetic representation of judicial media contents by a limited loss of meaningful information while overcoming the information overload problem. Originality/value – The adoption of ontology-based query expansion has made it possible to improve the performance of multimedia summarization algorithms with respect to the traditional approaches based on statistics. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been evaluated on real media contents, highlighting a good potential for extracting key events in the challenging area of judicial proceedings.

Query classification and study of university students' search trends

Majdi A. Maabreh, Mohammed N. Al-Kabi, Izzat M. Alsmadi — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – This study is an attempt to develop an automatic identification method for Arabic web queries and divide them into several query types using data mining. In addition, it seeks to evaluate the impact of the academic environment on using the internet. Design/methodology/approach – The web log files were collected from one of the higher institute's servers over a one-month period. A special program was designed and implemented to extract web search queries from these files and also to automatically classify Arabic queries into three query types (i.e. Navigational, Transactional, and Informational queries) based on predefined specifications for each type. Findings – The results indicate that students are slowly and gradually using the internet for more relevant academic purposes. Tests showed that it is possible to automatically classify Arabic queries based on query terms, with 80.6 per cent to 80.2 per cent accuracy for the two phases of the test respectively. In their future strategies, Jordanian universities should apply methods to encourage university students to use the internet for academic purposes. Web search engines in general and Arabic search engines in particular may benefit from the proposed classification method in order to improve the effectiveness and relevancy of their results in accordance with users' needs. Originality/value – Studying internet web logs has been the subject of many papers. However, the particular domain, and the specific focuses on this research are what can distinguish it from the others.

Second Life in the library: an empirical study of new users' experiences

Christopher Peter Clarke — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the experiences of new users of Second Life in order to identify potential barriers and attractors to the expansion of the userbase and therefore the market for in-world information services. Design/methodology/approach – A multi-faceted methodological approach was taken utilising two questionnaires (pre- and post-immersion), non-participant overt observation, structured interviews, and online diary keeping. Data was then analysed to identify barriers and attractors. Findings – More negative experiences were recorded than positive, with the costs, time commitment, stigma of using, the lack of structure, social interaction, and the complexity of the control interface all provoking negative responses. Avatar creation, and the creativity and quality of graphical presentation produced positive responses. Research limitations/implications – Due to the investment in time required to participate in the research, the sample size is smaller than ideal thus limiting the conclusions that can be generalised. The research also did not directly include interaction with online library or information services. Practical implications – For librarians using SL the research demonstrates that the response from new users is less than enthusiastic and that when designing virtual library services care should be taken to avoid the barriers identified here and to focus on the features found attractive by participants. Originality/value – Previous studies have examined the implementation of in-world information services without examining the experience of new users. Those studies that have looked directly at the user's interaction with virtual worlds are more focused on MMORPGs and on current users.

Non-agricultural databases and thesauri: Retrieval of subject headings and non-controlled terms in relation to agriculture

Tomaz Bartol — 2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to assess the utility of non-agriculture-specific information systems, databases, and respective controlled vocabularies (thesauri) in organising and retrieving agricultural information. The purpose is to identify thesaurus-linked tree structures, controlled subject headings/terms (heading words, descriptors), and principal database-dependent characteristics and assess how controlled terms improve retrieval results (recall) in relation to free-text/uncontrolled terms in abstracts and document titles. Design/methodology/approach – Several different hosts (interfaces, platforms, portals) and databases were used: CSA Illumina (ERIC, LISA), Ebscohost (Academic Search Complete, Medline, Political Science Complete), Ei-Engineering Village (Compendex, Inspec), OVID (PsycINFO), ProQuest (ABI/Inform Global). The search-terms agriculture and agricultural and truncated word-stem agricultur- were employed. Permuted (rotated index) search fields were used to retrieve terms from thesauri. Subject-heading search was assessed in relation to free-text search, based on abstracts and document titles. Findings – All thesauri contain agriculture-based headings; however, associative, hierarchical and synonymous relationships show important inter-database differences. Using subject headings along with abstracts and titles in search syntax (query) sometimes improves retrieval by up to 60 per cent. Retrieval depends on search fields and database-specifics, such as autostemming (lemmatization), explode function, word-indexing, or phrase-indexing. Research limitations/implications – Inter-database and host comparison, on consistent principles, can be limited because of some particular host- and database-specifics. Practical implications – End-users may exploit databases more competently and thus achieve better retrieval results in searching for agriculture-related information. Originality/value – The function of as many as ten databases in different disciplines in providing information relevant to subject matter that is not a topical focus of databases is assessed.

Facilitating Access to the Web of Data: A Guide for Librarians

2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Teaching Information Literacy Online

2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide (2nd ed.)

2012-04-20 00:00:00.0

Interactive Information Seeking, Behaviour and Retrieval

2012-04-20 00:00:00.0