IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 March 27, 1995 Volume XII, Number 12 Issue 249 ********************************************************** II. JOBS 1. Vanderbilt U.: Systems Software Specialist II 2. U. Maine: Nat'l. Ctr. for Geographic Information and Analysis: Research Asstant Professor 3. JELIS Editor III. NOTICES B. Meetings 1. CIKM '95 IV. PROJECTS A. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Jeffrey Huber Re: Vamderbilt U: Systems Software Specialist II The Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library at Vanderbilt University is interested in developing innovative, cost-effective ways to encourage the application of information and communications technologies in health care education, instruction, practice, and research. We wish to recruit to our team a multi-talented individual who is accomplished in information systems development, maintenance, and management. The individual filling this position will be responsible for supporting the information databases of the Eskind Biomedical Library, as well as maintaining the vision required as the Library continues to advance technologically and increase its repository of knowledge. The ideal candidate will have experience with UNIX, networks (e.g. Novell), OS/2, TCP/IP, managing and maintaining large databases, Web and gopher servers, HTML, materials management processes, and teaching or training. Preference will be given to individuals having experience with scripting languages (e.g. Perl, Awk, kshell/cshell), experience wtih OS2, and familiarity with medical or hospital systems. If you eagerly and easily learn new technologies, and are seeking an opportunity to put your creativity to work in a collaborative, challenging environment, this may be the position for you. The Eskind Biomedical Library is a state-of-the-art facility, opened in 1994, and is a component of the Informatics Center, which oversees the integration, management, and utilization of information, a strategic priority at Vanderbilt (which is an IAIMS institution). A bachelors degree in information science, computer science, or related field coupled with relevant experience is required; a masters degree is preferred. Salary is competitive, negotiable, and commensurate with education and experience. Insured benefits and leave policies are those applicable to exempt employees of Vanderbilt University, including TIAA/CREF, Vanguard, and VALIC retirement plan options. For application information, contact Dr. Nunzia Giuse via e-mail at nunzia.giuse@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu ********** II.2. Fr: kathleen@GROUSE.UMESVE.MAINE.EDU Re: U. Maine: Nat'l. Ctr. Geographic Info., RA Prof. RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR NATIONAL CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS UNIVERSITY OF MAINE ORONO, MAINE A full-time regular one-year position with the possibility of funding for a second year, to provide research assistance in the implementation of the research agenda of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at the University of Maine. Candidates must have a Ph.D on appointment and promise excellence in research relating to the design of geographic information systems. The Research Assistant Professor will be responsible for conducting and coordinating basic research, and publishing research results in refereed outlets. The NCGIA at the University of Maine is affiliated with the Department of Surveying Engineering. The Department has an active graduate program offering M.S. degrees and a Ph.D. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to the graduate program and take an active role in the supervision of graduate students, and, if desired, to teach GIS courses. See our World Wide Web Home Page at http://www.umesve.maine.edu/home_page.html for more on the NCGIA at the University of Maine. Send letter of application specifying the particular area of interest, curriculum vitae, copies of recent publications, and the names of three references to: Dr. Max J. Egenhofer, Associate Director, NCGIA, 5711 Boardman Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5711, email: max@mecan1.maine.edu. Review of applications will begin on March 24, 1995 and will continue until the position is filled. The University of Maine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Upon request the University of Maine provides reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. ********** II.3. Fr: Olsen Mgt. Group Re: JELIS Editor Position Announcement ASSOCIATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE EDUCATION EDITOR, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, published quarterly by the Association for Library and Information Science Education, an association devoted to the advancement of knowledge and learning in the interdisciplinary field of Information Studies. START DATE: August 1, 1995, for a four-year term QUALIFICATIONS: Relevant library/information science education experience. Knowledge of the library/information science education community. Ability to meet deadlines. Evidence of writing competence. Ability to attend annual conferences of ALISE as a member of the Association. A sense of vision for the Journal. Availability of back-up financial support for incidental copying, postage, telephone, and secretarial expenses. APPLICATIONS: Should be sent to the Chair of the Search Committee: Danny P. Wallace, associate dean, School of Library & Information Science, Louisiana State University, 267 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. Should include C.V. and a full list of publications together with a copy of what the applicant considers to be his or her best article, a statement of how, as Editor, the applicant sees the future of JELIS, and an outline of production support capabilities and needs. Please indicate whether available for interview during the 1995 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Please have one letter of reference which addresses the qualifications given above sent to Danny P. Wallace. DEADLINE for submission of applications: April 15, 1995. The Search Committee consists of Danny P. Wallace (Louisiana State), Chair; Joan Durrance (Michigan), and Linda Walling (South Carolina) with Rosemary DuMont (Kent State) as advisor. The Committee reserves the right to invite applications. This is an equal opportunity position. Modest stipend available for production support. ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.B.1. Fr: Niki Pissinou Re: CIKM '95 CIKM '95 Preliminary Call for Papers Fourth International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management November 29 - Dec. 2, 1995 Baltimore, Maryland, USA Sponsored by ACM SIGART* and ACM SIGIR* in cooperation with NASA, Bellcore, NSF, AAAI*, IEEE Computer Society*, ACM SIGMOD*, CACS/USL, SIGLINK, UMBC CIKM'95 will bring together leading researchers and developers in a wide variety of scientific areas, with a common interest in improving information and knowledge management technologies. Its objective is to provide an effective and established forum for the discussion and dissemination of original and fundamental recent advances in the area, and to foster close international collaboration between the database, information retrieval, and artificial intelligence communities. SCOPE: The primary focus of the conference is on new and original research results in the areas of theoretical foundations, design, implementation, and applications of information and knowledge management. We solicit the submission of papers that address novel, challenging and innovative results. We also solicit short papers that challenge the field with new technologies or applications and open new horizons of research. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas as they relate to information and knowledge management: * Mobile Databases & Wireless Computing * Digital Libraries * Knowledge Resource Discovery * Multimedia * Information Representation & Modeling * Modeling Database Dynamics * Information Structures & Interaction * Hypertext & Hypermedia * Distributed Object Management * Query Languages * Transaction and Workflow Management * Data and Knowledge Sharing * Heterogeneous & Distributed Systems * High Performance Algorithms * Design Techniques for Object Databases * Intelligent Agents & Network Mediators * Temporal/Spatial Databases * Active and Extensible Databases * Engineering, Scientific and Design Databases * Intelligent Search and Data Mining * Time, Event Management & Monitoring * User & Application Interfaces * Consistency, Integrity and Security * Tuning, Benchmarking & Performance * New Experimental, Commercial & Educational Systems * Integrating Databases & Information Retrieval * Cooperating & Interoperable Federated Systems * Parallelism & Distribution * Object Storage and Servers * Imprecise & Uncertain Information SUBMISSION: Authors are invited to submit complete and original papers. Papers that may be submitted for consideration include those that have not previously been published in another forum, or are not currently being published or reviewed by another journal or conference. All submitted papers will be refereed for quality, correctness, originality and relevance. The program committee reserves the right to accept a submission as long, short or poster presentation. Of particular interest are papers that address experiences with concrete applications. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. In addition, special issues of journals containing extended versions of outstanding papers from the conference have been planned. Manuscripts should include an abstract and be limited to 5000 words. Submissions should include the title, author(s), author's affiliation, e-mail address, tel/fax numbers and postal address. In case of multiple authors, an indication of which author is responsible for correspondence and preparing the camera ready paper for the proceedings should also be included. Seven copies of the manuscript should be submitted by May 1, 1995 to: Dr. Niki Pissinou & Dr. Avi Silberschatz c/o CIKM'95 The Center for Advanced Computer Studies 2 Rex Street, P.O. Box 44330 Lafayette, LA 70504, USA e-mail: cikm95@cacs.usl.edu Tel: (318) 482-6604 Fax: (318) 482-5791 For more information about the conference (as opposed to paper submissions) please contact Dr. Charles Nicholas at nicholas@cs.umbc.edu or Tel: (410) 455-2594. IMPORTANT DATES: Paper submission deadline : May 1, 1995 Notification of acceptance : June 28, 1995 Camera ready papers due : July 31, 1995 WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS: An important part of the conference is the workshop program, which focuses on timely research challenges and initiatives. Proposals are solicited for organizing workshops and tutorials. Please send your proposal by May 1, 1995 to Professor K. Makki, Workshop Tutorial Chair, Department of Computer Science, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA (kia@unlv.edu, Tel: (702)895-4024, Fax: (702) 895-4156). ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.A.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts - September 1994 Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts Compiled by: Susanne M. Humphrey, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894 The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being of potential interest to the Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer search, using the CDP/Online system, of the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are accession number (AN); author (AU); title (TI); degree, institution, year, number of pages (IN); UMI order number (DD); reference to the published DAI (SO); abstract (AB); one or more DAI subject descriptors chosen by the author (DE); thesis adviser (AR); and dates associated with the monthly update file (UP). Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-343-5299; fax: 313-973-1540. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided. Dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. DE Education, Technology. Information Science. AR Kelley, Gaylen. UP 9409. Revised: 940930. AN AAI9425782 AU Azzam, Hammad Khaled. TI OPTIMIZATION ISSUES IN THE RANKING PROCESS OF VERY LARGE TEXTBASE RETRIEVAL. IN Thesis (PH.D.)--TUFTS UNIVERSITY, 1994, 123p. DD Order Number: AAI9425782. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-04, Section: B, page: 1568. AB Optimization schemes of retrieving and ranking documents in very large textbase information retrieval systems (1) are introduced in the thesis, with special emphasis on multi-level ranking systems. Weight computation. A new method for computing the weight of a retrieved document in a multi-level ranking (2,3,4,5) information retrieval system is introduced. The new method is based on normalizing certain factors (denoted attributes) before determining the weight of the document. We discuss the old method and the advantages introduced in the new one. We also introduce a new method for representing the adjacency relation between two or more consecutive words in a query, based on the model introduced by Chang and Chen (5). The limitations of the previous model are discussed and the advantages of the new one are presented. Sorting. The worst case behavior of the heap (6), the diamond deque (7), and the Min-Max heap (8) data structures is determined and the ability to extend each structure by increasing its branching dimension is examined. Equations were derived to compute various complexity parameters of the diamond deque data structure for different values of the branching dimension. We prove that the Min-Max heap is very similar in performance and operation to a diamond deque of dimension 4. We also determine the optimum data structure for ranking retrieved records under different system settings. The size of the textbase had great effect on the methodology used to handle the optimization tasks (weight computation or sorting). A statistical model of the query and the textbase is created to determine some of the statistical parameters inherent to a textbase. Using these parameters we introduce a formal mechanism to classify textbases according to their size and retrieval ability (the tendency of the textbase to find more documents when random queries are supplied). Also, a relationship between the size of a query, and the number of documents retrieved was established, provided that the keywords in the query were randomly selected. DE Engineering, Electronics and Electrical. AR Chang, C Hwa. Chang, S C. UP 9409. Revised: 940930. AN AAI9423265 AU Mcgaugh, della Lea Ann. TI ELECTRONIC TRAILS ON DOCLINE: ORGANIZATIONAL INTERACTIONS AMONG MICHIGAN HEALTH SCIENCE LIBRARIES (NETWORK THEORY). IN Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1994, 329p. DD Order Number: AAI9423265. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0782. AB The cooperative use of collections among libraries through automated interlibrary loan systems is standard practice among libraries, but the interorganizational relationships reflected in these transactions are poorly understood. Structural analysis of interlibrary loan data through cluster analysis is used to explore and describe resource sharing activity. The macrosociological theory of Peter Blau is examined for its usefulness in explaining relationships among libraries defined by the interlibrary loan interaction. The population studied was Michigan health science libraries participating in DOCLINE (the automated electronic interlibrary loan network of the National Library of Medicine) during 1991. Cluster analysis of interlibrary loan data from DOCLINE revealed meaningful structural relationships among the interloaning libraries. Identified groups differed on collection measures and geographically. The data suggests that groupings may form around libraries with stronger collections. The actualization of the resource sharing process as evidenced by the cluster analysis of interlibrary loan records is compared with the conceptualization of the process (evidenced by the library managers' perceptions), and the formalization of the process (evidenced by DOCLINE routing tables). Results show that the actual interlibrary lending interactions among the libraries do not reflect closely the interactions suggested by either the conceptual or organizational data. Electronic routing of interlibrary lending requests may produce patterns of interactions that were not anticipated by the participating managers. When interactions between groups of libraries were examined in the context of Blau's prediction that the number of contacts by members of any smaller group with members of any larger group would exceed the number of contacts by members of the larger group with members of the smaller, the proportion of contacts between libraries in variously identified smaller and larger groups was in the expected direction. When the volume of requests was considered, the mathematical relationship between the groups was inadequate to explain the interactions, suggesting the need for alternative explanations. Some geographic trends were discernible, but the strong patterns suggested by Blau were not supported. DE Library Science. AR L Pao, Miranda. UP 9409. 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