Reducing Indeterminism in Consultation : A Cognitive Model of User/Librarian Interactions

In information facilities such as libraries, finding documents that are relevant to a user query isdifficult because of the indeterminism involved in the process by which documents are indexed,and the latitude users have in choosing terms to express a query on a particular topic. Referencelibrarians play an important support role in coping with this indeterminism, focusing user queriesthrough an interactive dialog. Based on thirty detailed observations of user/librarian interactionsobtained through a field experiment, we have developed a computational model designed to simulatethe reference librarian. The consultation includes two phases. The first is handle search,where the user's rough problem statement and a user stereotyping imposed by the librarian areused in determining the appropriate tools (handles). The second phase is document search, involvingthe search for documents within a chosen handle. We are collaborating with the universitylibrary for putting our model to use as an intelligent assistant for an online retrieval system