EcoTerm IV NBII/EioNet Demo of Federated KOS Search

1. EcoTerm IVNBII/EioNet Demo of Federated KOS Search Mike Frame Vienna, Austria April 2007

2. Discussion Topics… • Project Background • NBII Thesaurus • GEMET Thesaurus • Prototype Client • Sample Query Results • Including no, 1, or both thesauri • Overall Findings

3. Biocomplexity Thesaurushttp://thesaurus.nbii.gov http://thesaurus.nbii.gov

4. EIONET GEMET Thesaurushttp://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/webservices?langcode=en

5. NBII/EIONET Thesaurus Web-service • Background - collaboration through Ecoinformatics TWG • Primary Goal – access distributed multi-lingual thesauri • Results – SKOS web-service & client 1

6. Latest Client & Service capabilities • Access to both NBII and GEMET • Single language capability • Results are provided by source • All documentation is completed http://thesaurus.nbii.gov

7. Demo Client

8. Initial Challenges Identified • Thesaurus scope, intent, purpose, and coverage is different • NBII = sub-discipline of environment • Endangered species • Broader Terms:Species , Special status species , Taxa • EIOINET = broad environment • Broader Terms:environmental protection

9. Current State • Users • Most aren’t aware of the underlying vocabulary • Vocabulary are often unique to organization and more for “categorization” than retrieval • Goal • Include all Vocabularies and let Search Engine handle results

10. Demonstration Search Retrieval • Created a demonstration datasets • NBII Cataloged Resources • ~30,000 web-sites, publications, images, maps, etc. • Xml structured data – controlled subject • NBII FGDC Metadata • ~22,000 resources on research studies • 150-200 elements • Semi-structured with no controlled vocabulary

11. NBII Catalog Records • Based on the Dublin Core + • 18 elements, of which 10 are mandatory • In place since 2002 • Used by distributed content managers

12. NBII Metadata CH

13. Process • Added thesaurus capabilities to Development Search Engine for: • NBII Thesaurus • EIONET GEMET Thesaurus • Used BT, RT, NT relationships & weighting • Performed sample queries within the test repositories for: • No thesaurus • GEMET only aided searching • NBII only aided searching • GEMET+NBII aided searching (X)

14. Test Repository 1 • NBII Resource Catalog (Dublin Core)

15. No Thesauri – “invasive species”

16. NBII Thesaurus – “invasive species”

17. GEMET Thesaurus – “invasive species”

18. No Thesauri – “Endangered Species”

19. NBII Thesaurus – “endangered species”

20. GEMET Only – “endangered species”

21. No Thesaurus – “rare species”

22. NBII Thesaurus – “rare species”

23. GEMET Thesaurus – “rare species”

24. GEMET Thesaurus – “rare species” (expanded degrees of relevance)

25. No Thesauri – “protected species”

26. NBII Thesaurus – “protected species”

27. GEMET Thesaurus – “protected species”

28. Results – NBII Catalog Resources

29. Results – NBII Resource Catalog

30. Test Repository 2 • NBII FGDC Metadata

31. Sample Queries – No vocabulariesMetadata CH “ invasive species”

32. Sample Queries – NBII onlyMetadata CH “invasive species”

33. Sample Queries – GEMET onlyMetadata CH“ invasive species”

34. Sample Queries – No vocabulariesMetadata CH“endangered species”

35. Sample Queries – NBII onlyMetadata CH“endangered species”

36. Sample Queries – GEMET onlyMetadata CH“ endangered species”

37. No Thesauri – Metadata CH“rare species”

38. NBII Thesaurus – Metadata CH “rare species”

39. GEMET Thesaurus – Metadata CH“rare species”

40. Sample Queries – No vocabulariesMetadata CH “protected species”

41. Sample Queries – NBII onlyMetadata CH “protected species”

42. Sample Queries – GEMET onlyMetadata CH“ protected species”

43. Results – FGDC Metadata

44. Results – NBII Resource Catalog

45. Overall ResultsGeneral Findings • Assumption that a Thesaurus improves “number” of results is valid • Degree does vary by the term and mappings • Since users search from a # of perspectives, backgrounds, expertise, multiple thesaurus do improve the number of results

46. Overall ResultsUsing only GEMET Terminology • Terms not included in the NBII thesaurus that were in GEMET improved search results • GEMET strength of broad coverage aided searches • In General for the Metadata repository • Results varied somewhat, but often same top 10 results

47. Overall ResultsGeneral Findings • With “No thesaurus” test results produced poorer #1 results • Thesaurus results for the structured set ordered results list more differently than unstructured set (Metadata)

48. Issues • “integrating” multi-scope and purpose thesauri presents challenges: • Can’t turn the effort into a thesaurus project • Degrees of relevance of terms is an issue • Concept matching or different intent • Differing classification (RT vs. NT) across thesauri • Differing “weighting” algorithms

49. Further Study Options 1.) Take multiple thesauri “as is” 2.) Do some “attempted” concept matching i.e. “endangered animal species” – “endangered animal” 3.) If not match is present, add term and relationship as is 4.) Obtain terms from XMDR

50. Further Study Options – cont. • Follow-up with additional repositories • Repeat with other query terms • Re-look at weighting algorithms • Do queries with subset of terms • Repeat with completely integrated thesaurus as compared to>>>>>>> • Repeat queries with machine integration Complete By June