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The research position below is still open and we are looking to fill it as
soon as possible. 


UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING - HYPERMEDIA RESEARCH UNIT

3 year EPSRC Research Associate
Salary:  £15,205 - 23,199 depending on qualifications and experience.

For a project in collaboration with the Science Museum, unlocking access to
the Museum's collections database. The project explores how the semantic
structure underlying information can enhance intelligent browsing and search
tools. You should possess a postgraduate qualification or relevant
experience in computing or information science and a programming/database
background. You will join an active hypermedia research unit specialising in
the cultural heritage domain.

For informal enquiries and information about the application process
contact Dr. Douglas Tudhope (01443-482271)
e-mail [log in to unmask]
http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/research/hypermedia


You will conduct independent research but also work as part of a team. You
will liase with the Science Museum and other collaborators. Knowledge of any
of the following would be an advantage: database programming; information
science; Museum collections and IT. You will be expected to become familiar
with previous thesaurus research in information science and measures of
semantic closeness. You will design, program and evaluate research
prototypes of thesaurus-based retrieval tools employing semantic closeness
measures. You will conduct evaluations with users and analyse results. You
will have the opportunity to write and collaborate on academic publications.

Overview
Facilitating access to information is a topical concern. Major efforts are
underway to digitise collections for the Internet while existing databases,
previously the domain of the professional, are being opened to a new range
of users. Problems of information access are well known, and are heightened
when users are unfamiliar with indexing conventions. There is a critical
need for tools that will assist users to formulate and refine queries, and
navigate through information space. The recent growth of cultural heritage
applications has served as a major impetus in promoting access to multimedia
collections and has coincided with a concern by museums to rethink their
public role. As a result, there has been a move to unlock collections
databases to the public, which has foregrounded the question of 'access
points' and indexing practice.  One of the most commonly used controlled
vocabulary indexing tools is the thesaurus. More powerful use of thesauri in
retrieval is seen as key to widening  public access. Advantages of the
semantic relationships between index terms in faceted thesauri are widely
recognised, however their potential has yet to be realised in retrieval. The
project will identify heuristics to guide expansion of strings of query and
index terms, in order to yield a wider set of semantically close terms.
These will be applied in novel navigation and retrieval tools that are not
dependent on exact matching of keywords. The proposed research involves
close collaboration with the Science Museum in its attempts to promote wider
access to its collections database. 

More information can be found at 
http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/research/hypermedia/vacancies.htm


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