1. 1 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries DAFFODIL Effective Support for Using Digital Libraries Norbert Fuhr University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany *Supported by DFG as part of the Research Programme V 3 D 2

2. 2 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Daffodil concepts 1. Strategic information access support 2. Levels of system support 3. Digital library life cycle 4. Collaboration 5. User-friendly integrated desktop

3. 3 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 1. Strategic information access support Levels of search activities (Bates 1990): 1. Move: Low-level search function (e.g. type in search term, view retrieved document) 2. Tactic: several moves to further a search (e.g. broaden/narrow a query) 3. Stratagem: set of actions on a single domain (citation database, tables of contents of journals) 4. Strategy: complete plan for satisfying an information need (e.g. subject search, browse relevant journals, find referenced articles)

4. 4 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries System architecture Strategic support in 4 layers Federated digital libraries of different types User-Interface Strategies Tactics Moves Stratagems DL Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

5. 5 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Moves Distributed search of data from different Digital Libraries & Web sources Provide homogenous access to data and functions ~15 sources accessed User-Interface Strategies Tactics Moves Stratagems DL Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

6. 6 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Resultlist Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

7. 7 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Combined detail view Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI Attributes Links internal external

8. 8 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Tactics User-Interface Strategies Tactics Moves Stratagems DL Combine services Speed up search Redefine query Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

9. 9 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Extract from Result List Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

10. 10 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Stratagems Cover an information domain Combine all retrieved information & links User-Interface Strategies Tactics Moves Stratagems DL Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

11. 11 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Stratagems on the Desktop – Subject Search – Author networks – Citation Search – Journal/Conference Run

12. 12 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Author network based stratagems: 1.Author network browse 2.Ranking a document result set using author centrality Author Networks

13. 13 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Citation Search: Reference Tracking  A relevant document is dragged to the tool for citation tracking  Documents that cite or are cited are retrieved  Browsing, Inspection and Navigaton  Drag and Drop  Can be performed iteratively

14. 14 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Strategy Complex plan to fullfill a specific task User-Interface Strategies Tactics Moves Stratagems DL Moves – Tactics – Stratagems – Strategies – GUI

15. 15 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 2. Levels of system support 0. Rigid system behavior 1. Adaptive system 2. Proactive system

16. 16 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Adaptivity 1. Agents collect information Library agents: content and technical aspects of connected DLs User agents: behavior of single users/user group 2. Agents change system behavior based on collected info Library agents: select preferred DLs,… User agents: offer preferred functions,…

17. 17 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Proactivity Agents act without explicit invocation Implemented as event-condition-action rules, e.g. – when query result is empty, broaden query – suggest related keywords for query – when author name is ambiguous, display possible completions

18. 18 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Proactivity

19. 19 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 3. Digital library life cycle Resource selection Organizing items Evaluation of results Knowledge generation Retrieving items

20. 20 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Collate Save all digital objects in a structured personal digital library Awareness: – Keep an eye on my topics – focused crawling (BINGO!) Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

21. 21 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Collate Personal library: Store Objects Document Metadata Fulltexts Authors Journals, Conferences Hyperlinks, Bookmarks Query formulations Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

22. 22 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Personal Library

23. 23 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Interpret Annotations to DL objects Creation of links between DL objects Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

24. 24 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Re-Present (support generation of new information) Export folders from personal library Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

25. 25 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Private Group Private Public Group Private 4. Collaboration Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

26. 26 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present New objects (by other users/ due to profile) Notification mechanisms (visual markers/ email) Collation and awareness

27. 27 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Collaborate interpretation Annotation threads Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

28. 28 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Recommendation Recommended digital objects through collaboration: – What do others have for me? – Who are the others? – How did others search? Discover – Retrieve – Collate – Interpret – Re-Present

29. 29 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 5. User-friendly integrated desktop Integrate distributed services and software agents in consistent manner Provide tool chains to enable users to combine services Ensure flexible workflow with free choice of starting point Hide complexity

30. 30 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Desktop

31. 31 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Search  Search Domain Specification  Filter Settings and Query Composition  Integrated Result Lists with Draggable Objects  Navigation  Detail Inspection

32. 32 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 6. Evaluation Evaluation with 28 subjects Methods: questionnaire, logging, video Tasks of different complexity Major results: – Only for very simple tasks (known item retrieval), other methods may be faster – Complex tasks are supported very effectively

33. 33 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries 7. Summary Daffodil concepts Strategic information access support Levels of system support Digital library life cycle Collaboration User-friendly integrated desktop

34. User Store Interaction Understanding Queries Massaging Results & User Annotation Transformations Discovery Automatic Capture Interpretive Capture Managing Personal Libraries DWIM Cognitive Completion Chunking Representational Model of Common Elements Collaboration [Larsen & Wactlar: Summary of NSF WS on Future Directions for DLs, 2003]

35. 35 Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries Outlook Further research – Support strategies – Path model: define/learn successful usage patterns – New application domains: additional object types, support re-present stage Application for large user communities Try Daffodil: http://www.daffodil.de