Information retrieval using a "digital book shelf".

Abstract

WALT (Washington University's Approach to Lots of Text), is a prototype interface designed to support information retrieval research. The WALT interface serves as a "front end" to a wide array of retrieval engines including those based on Boolean retrieval, latent semantic indexing, term frequency--inverse document frequency, and Bayesian inference techniques. The WALT interface is composed of seven distinct components: a document examination component known as the Document Browsing Area; four navigation components called the Book Shelf, the Book Spine, the Table of Contents, and the Path Clipboard; a term-based information retrieval component called Control Panel; and a relevance feedback component known as the Reader Feedback Panel. WALT's most unique feature may be it's use of "book shelf" and "book spine" metaphors both to facilitate navigation and to provide a histogram-based display showing documents deemed appropriate for answering user queries.