An Evaluation of a Bibliographic Information Retrieval System Using OPAC Usage Logs

Abstract

　We proposed retrieval methodologies based on usage logs of library OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) for bibliographic information held in a library. The following methodologies were proposed: A) re-ranking methodology based on the frequency of page visits and B) ranking methodology incorporating query keywords within the same session. We applied and evaluated the methodologies using the usage logs recorded at the library OPAC in University of Tsukuba over a period of about 46 months. For the evaluation, we built a set of 16 queries based on the past questions and answers at Kasuga Learning Commons, and assessed the topical relevance for search results of each method by manual. As a result,we showed that both the methods A and B were evaluated better than the baseline (BM25F ranking methodology using bibliographic fields) and the method B was better than the method A.