the walden's paths virtual directories unmil p. karadkar, luis francisco-revilla, richard...
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The Walden's Paths Virtual DirectoriesThe Walden's Paths Virtual Directories
Unmil P. Karadkar, Luis Francisco-Revilla, Richard Furuta, Frank M. Shipman III
Texas A&M University
Structuring Access to a Dynamic Structuring Access to a Dynamic Collection of Digital Documents:Collection of Digital Documents:
Walden’s Paths – Project OverviewWalden’s Paths – Project Overview
• Facilitates inclusion of Web-based information in the K-12 curriculum
• Most information on the Web is not suitable for use in classroom education
• Information needs to be contextualized – To suit the curricular goals– To highlight focal points for students– To present issues of interest
• Paths are annotated lists of Web pages
Walden’s Paths – Project OverviewWalden’s Paths – Project Overview
WWW Host
Web Page
Internet BackboneA Path
Walden’s Paths – Project OverviewWalden’s Paths – Project Overview
• Walden’s Paths as a part of larger Digital Library
• Internationalization
• Path Manager– Web pages change frequently– Monitor and report web page changes
• User testing in the U.S., Germany, Italy
The Walden’s Paths ServerThe Walden’s Paths Server
• Annotation Frame
• Control Frame
• Content Frame– not controlled by the
Path Author– Following links
The Walden’s Paths ServerThe Walden’s Paths Server
• Off-Path traversal– Single click return to
path
• Guided exploratory learning environment
The Walden’s Paths ServerThe Walden’s Paths Server
• List of Paths
• Path Summaries
• Links to author directories
The Need for Virtual DirectoriesThe Need for Virtual Directories
• Path Lists tend to get lengthy fast
• Limited amount of display real estate
• Paths may be added and deleted frequently
• Classifying Paths by author does not solve the issue
• In fact, no static classification scheme can satisfy the requirements of all readers
• Paths of interest to a reader may be spread over multiple physical directories
The Need for Virtual DirectoriesThe Need for Virtual Directories
The Need for Virtual DirectoriesThe Need for Virtual Directories
School A School B
Path Server
8th Grade7th Grade8th Grade7th Grade
Mrs. JonesMr. Smith
Virtual DirectoriesVirtual Directories
• Provide – content-based– location independent
access
• Persistent queries– Query attributes are saved– Resolved at access-time
• Up to date information is presented to users
• A proven technique – Semantic File System (Gifford, 1991)– Hierarchy and Content (Gopal 1999)
The Walden’s Paths Virtual DirectoriesThe Walden’s Paths Virtual Directories
• Allow readers to access paths of interest without having to worry about their location
• Display all paths that are currently available and may be of interest to the reader
• Aid readers in reusing their past queries
• Allow readers to search their earlier queries (work in progress)
• Relationship with physical directories– A virtual directory created using author name as the search
criterion
The InterfaceThe Interface
The InterfaceThe Interface
The InterfaceThe Interface
• Identical to the Path List interface
• Links for– Modifying the criteria of
this directory– Returning to the main
Path List
The InterfaceThe Interface
• Save as new search or overwrite
• No security yet
Technical DetailsTechnical Details
• Baseline implementation
• Virtual directories are stored as text files
• Currently the directories can only be accessed via a direct URL which is presented to the readers when the directory is created
• The directories have identical look and feel as the Path lists
• Query terms are “OR”ed to yield the final result set
• Queries can be recalled and modified
Future WorkFuture Work
• Security and sharing of directories
• Cataloging of Paths in order to return correct matches– Keyword-based approach with designated catalogers– Ensure consistency of terms
• Better control over searches– Boolean and ranked queries– Use existing tools (MG?)
• User modeling for saving user preferences– Favorites– Paths to be excluded from search– Recall directories created by users
ConclusionConclusion
• Readers are not restricted to a single listing of paths– They can create directories to suit their needs– Easier to find paths that interest them
• Decouple the storage structure from the logical structure