Genesis of an electronic database expert system

This article reports on the creation of a prototype, Web-based, expert system utility that helps end-users better navigate the range of library databases available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Both librarian-assigned database descriptors and terms drawn from the controll...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reference services review 2000-09, Vol.28 (3), p.207-222
Main Authors: Ma, Wei, Cole, Timothy W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Libraries
Bibliographic catalogs and databases
Bibliographic data bases
Database Design
Exact sciences and technology
Expert Systems
Higher Education
Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign
Information and communication sciences
Information science. Documentation
Information Seeking
Information Systems
Libraries
Navigating
Online data bases
Online information retrieval
Online Searching
Prototypes
Sciences and techniques of general use
Secondary and tertiary information and documents
Specialized information sources
Specialized information sources (paper or electronic format)
University libraries
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
User Needs (Information)
World Wide Web
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Summary:This article reports on the creation of a prototype, Web-based, expert system utility that helps end-users better navigate the range of library databases available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Both librarian-assigned database descriptors and terms drawn from the controlled vocabularies of the databases themselves are used to thoroughly characterize resources. End-users then utilize keyword searches and or menu selections to identify resources most relevant to their information needs. In addition to reporting on the UIUC prototype and the work done to create it, the concerns that gave rise to the project are discussed. Previous work and research elsewhere are summarized, and the more common approaches currently in place in academic libraries today are noted. Plans for testing the UIUC prototype with librarians and end-users, for evaluating the results of those tests, and for iteratively refining the tool based on those evaluations are then briefly described.
ISSN:0090-7324
2054-1716
DOI:10.1108/00907320010345088