# /programsandresearch/dss/pollitt.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/programsandresearch/dss/pollitt.htm

# View Based Searching: A New Paradigm for Information Retrieval Based on Faceted Classification and Indexing

## Dr. Steve Pollitt

Reader in Information Science at the University of Huddersfield, UK

Friday, December 5, 1997

8:30-9:00 Coffee and Donuts
9:00-11:00 Presentation

OCLC Auditorium
6565 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017

The performance of many information retrieval systems is limited by a number of factors. These include the nature of the interaction, dominated by the keyword search command line with the single result set system response, and the minimal use made of thesauri and classification schemes by end-users. View-based searching presents a new paradigm which seeks to improve this performance by making more effective use of the graphic user interface through the presentation and interaction with views based on the hierarchical knowledge structures available with thesauri and classification schemes. Developments which have taken place in database management systems to provide more powerful access to data can be paralleled with the latent retrieval power possible through faceted classification. This presentation draws on examples from both text and data retrieval to demonstrate the paradigm in action.

Dr. Steve Pollitt is reader in information science at the University of Huddersfield in the UK. He holds a first degree in computer science from Hatfield Polytechnic and a Ph.D. from the Council for National Academic Awards for research into "An Expert Systems Approach to Document Retrieval". Dr. Pollitt is a fellow of the British Computer Society and formerly chair of its Information Retrieval Specialist Group.

In the mid 1980's following the development of CANSEARCH, an early effort at developing an expert system to assist cancer therapy clinicians in searching MEDLINE, Dr. Pollitt spent a year as a special expert in information retrieval at the National Library of Medicine's Lister Hill Center for Biomedical Communication. As director of the CeDAR, the Centre for Database Access Research, in the School of Computing and Mathematics at the University of Huddersfield, he has led a number of research projects, including two sponsored by the British Library: the first, "Matching OPAC User Interfaces to User Needs"; the second, "HIBROWSE for Bibliographic Databases: A study of the application of usability techniques in view-based searching". The HIBROWSE interface has been applied to improve access to the EMBASE database published by Elsevier Science and most recently to the core student database at the University of Huddersfield.