Resource acquisition, sharing, and use in intelligent information access: An investigation of the researchers

✍ Scribed by Jiangping Chen; Fei Li

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 136 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.14504701111

✦ Synopsis

The preservation and reuse of scientific data are of increasing importance for many disciplines and fields, including the field of Intelligent Information Access (IIA). IIA researchers develop valuable knowledge systems and open-source software through the use of resources developed by others. This paper presents the results of an online survey completed by IIA researchers in order to better understand their resource acquisition, sharing, and use behaviors. The survey link was posted on related mailing lists and 89 researchers responded. The resulting analysis shows that freely available web resources play a crucial role in current IIA research. It is not always easy for IIA researchers to find necessary resources using existing mechanisms such as web searching, conference networking, and personal communications. Furthermore, using resources developed by others poses substantial challenges for researchers. These challenges include cost, poor documentation, licensing and copyright issues, and usability issues. The paper also suggests better mechanisms for sharing and using resources to promote IIA research and to develop future resources.