User‐oriented approach to Web referral: Museo Mediator and the hyperguide for health prevention
| Date | 01 February 2001 |
| Pages | 25-30 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470110383074 |
| Published date | 01 February 2001 |
| Author | A.M. Paci |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
User-oriented approach
to Web referral:
Museo Mediator and
the hyperguide for
health prevention
A.M. Paci
Introduction
The paper outlines the results of a research
project into new methods and tools to design
and implement user-oriented referral services
for the Internet. The telematic approach is
considered as a starting point: the evolution of
the Internet as an information context has
highlighted the logic of disintermediation:
namely, the opportunity for users to have
direct access to information resources. By
contrast, the uncontrollable growth of
information on the Internet has stressed
the need to design the so-called
``info-mediary'' Web sites, a new generation
of resource-orientation services based on
large-scale information gateways which are
extremely important for information
professionals. Recently important initiatives
have been launched: the DESIRE
Consortium has developed the subject based
information gateway[1], and there is the
OCLC CORC project with a cooperative
database of Web resources[2].
The paper reports on a research project
aimed to build a new indexing technique
which integrates into a matrix model the
cultural legacy in database searching and
indexing capabilities inherited from the
information studies tradition with various new
criteria derived from the use of the Internet.
Emphasis is on the need of improving Web
usability in specific domains by the means of:
.A Web-referral source on Web sites of
institutions and organisations.
.A set of templates to generate various
target-oriented referral tools.
Furthermore, organiSations and cultural
institutions can exploit the same indexing
technique to extend mutual network
accessibility. The development of
Web-referral aims to supplement the
search engines, the Web site's outlinks
service and the Web catalogues, through a
consolidated and adaptive framework which
provides the systematic description of Web
sites of institutions and organisations
focussing on the availability of information
materials.
The Web sites are steadily growing in all
fields of activity: hundreds of millions of Web
pages are available and search engines index
less than 20 percent of this huge amount of
documents, from business to science and
leisure. This means that there is an actual
limit in the recall factor of the information
retrieval mechanism of search engines.
The author
A.M. Paci is a Researcher at the Institute of Studies on
Research and Scientific Documentation, National Research
Council, Rome, Italy. E-mail: paciwin@usrds.rm.cnr.it
Abstract
Outlines the results of a research into new methods and
tools to design and implement user-oriented Web referral
services for the Internet. Reports on a research project aimed
to build a new indexing technique which integrates into a
matrix model the experience in database searching and
indexing capabilities with various new criteria derived from
the use of the Internet. Emphasis is on the need of improving
Web usability in specific domains. Proposes a descriptive
methodology, named unified multiform context (CUM) to
analyze different groups of Web sites. The CUM
methodology led to different results. In the direction to
improve the network secondary communication, qualified
support comes from the legacy of information studies, which
have developed the ability to extrapolate the information
elements from heterogeneous information materials of
different nature, to reorganise these elements in complex
value added and dynamic systems and proactively to
disseminate and communicate the results into a knowledge
process. Internet referral is not a static thing but a life-cycle
process. It requires building a dynamic framework sensible to
major variations and modifications: to this end it is vital to
activate bilateral communication with the institutions whose
Web site is considered an information resource for the library
service.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.mcbup.com/research registers
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
http://www.emerald-library.com
25
The Electronic Library
Volume 19 .Number 1 .2001 .pp. 25±30
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0264-0473
To continue reading
Request your trial