A DIALOGIC NETWORKING APPROACH TO INFORMATION-RETRIEVAL

The user of documents, e.g. of a library, faces the task of exploring the data fundus and of selecting information according to his actual i ntentions. He even may find or happen to find new aspects and, followi ng these, will further develop his original quest. How can the user be supported by PC-based procedures? Recently at the Institute of Philos ophy, University of Innsbruck/Austria, the GABEK method (Ganzheitliche Bewaltigung sprachlich erfabter Komplexitat) was developed. It has pr oved useful so far in similar cases of ordering and/or retrieving info rmation; especially to build hidden order structures and to incorporat e them into information processing and storage facilities. It seems th at the GABEK method might be applied successfully also to the user pro blem as mentioned above. To clarify his quest the user relies on a dat abase1. This base contains experiences of previous users, which are ex pressed in natural language sentences. Through a PC-supported dialogue 1, founded on database1, the user elaborates a more detailed concept o f his own topic. This concept later is termed a ''linguistic gestalt'' , if it fulfils certain conditions. The linguistic gestalt may include 3 to 10 sentences in natural language, which specify the user's origi nal intentions. The key terms contained in this linguistic gestalt wil l, in a dialogue2, be employed to retrieve relevant information from d atabase2. Database2 represents the information system, e.g. a library. The procedures as indicated above and the building of linguistic gest alts can be effected by GABEK. Small quantities of data provided, the WINRELAN program (1993) may be used.