Supporting Polyrepresentation and Information Seeking Strategies

This paper introduces the basic concepts and notions of a new framework for interactive information retrieval. Based on examples for a real-life collection of book data we show why current systems are not sufficient. It is necessary to support both polyrepresentation of information objects and multiple information seeking strategies in order to cope with the shortcomings of most current retrieval systems. A search operator concept is introduced which controls the process of retrieval. We provide real-life examples of how information seeking strategies can be supported. Furthermore, we show why interaction should play a more important role than it does today. Finally, we give an outlook about our future plans and upcoming research challenges.