Information organization and retrieval using a topic maps-based ontology: Results of a task-based evaluation

  • Authors:
  • Myongho Yi

  • Affiliations:
  • School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma, 401 West Brooks, Room 120, Norman, OK 73019–6032

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

As information becomes richer and more complex, alternative information-organization methods are needed to more effectively and efficiently retrieve information from various systems, including the Web. The objective of this study is to explore how a Topic Maps-based ontology approach affects users' searching performance. Forty participants participated in a task-based evaluation where two dependent variables, recall and search time, were measured. The results of this study indicate that a Topic Maps-based ontology information retrieval (TOIR) system has a significant and positive effect on both recall and search time, compared to a thesaurus-based information retrieval (TIR) system. These results suggest that the inclusion of a Topic Maps-based ontology is a beneficial approach to take when designing information retrieval systems. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.