Organização do conhecimento em bibliotecas digitais de teses e dissertações: uma abordagem baseada na classificação facetada e taxonomias dinâmicas

Abstract

Digital libraries, particularly those whose collection consists of theses and dissertations, lack mechanisms best suitedfor its exploration. Users need to prepare query expressions, but the inability to express precisely and clearly the needed information in addition to problems related to natural language ambiguity, generates negative impact on results. This research used a model based on Faceted Classification Theory for knowledge representation and organization in a theses and dissertations digital library, besides dynamic taxonomies, to compose the information retrieval mechanism. New retrieval components were developed as a computional prototype, which was object of a comparative study. This comparative study, developed as an esperiment, sought to determinate the contribution of the mechanisms of knowledge representation and organization, besides the new mechanism of information retrieval, in facilitating the discovery, as well as increasing digital library users satisfaction. The mechanism of dynamic faceted search, implemented in the TDF-Bíblio prototype, made it possible improvements in the user's experience related to search and exploration of digital library collection. These improvements could be observed maily in three usage scenarios: pragmatic documents selection, exploration and analysis of the collection. In the context of the evaluation, conduced as an experiment, the results showed improvements related to information retrieval and library user's satisfaction. The mechanism of dynamic faceted search provides support for a new access paradigm, enabling guided exploration of the collection, and making a bridge between searching and browsing processes. Furthermore, using this approach proved to be intuitive and easily used by users.