36- IR-Related Abstracts selected by G. Salton Efficient Automatic Retrieval with 'Term Databases', Carlo Vernimb, Infomediary 3, 1989, 65-90. Getting access to information stored in databases is an art which still requires experienced intermediaries between end-users of information and the databases. If the intermediary could be replaced by a system for automatic retrieval then the database market would be open to end-users. Automatic here means complete obviation not only of intermediaries but also of training. Such a system, a software package, called 'DiRer' for Direct Retrieval) has been developed and tested: the end-user enters a query in natural language; the system displays texts of documents; and the user indicates which are relevant to his]her query and which are not. The system requires an inverted as well as a linear file, makes use of Boolean search strategies, co-occurrence of terms in documents, and of relevance feedback for term weighting, document ranking and selection of successful subqueries. It is applicable to 'term databases', i.e., databases which consist of words (terms), such as keyword indexes or full texts. It can be used for in-house databases, for databases stored on CD-ROM, and it can be implemented on a mainframe computer for online
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