Knowledge and information spaces: Implications for retrieval systems
Michael J. McGill · Journal of the American Society for Information Science · 1976
Abstract Vector representations of information items and requests will be used as a basis for a discussion of knowledge and information spaces. The representations will allow such questions as the meaning of relationships between vectors within the spaces. It will be shown that there are a number of possibilities for establishing these relationships, even if one is restricted to a basic cosine correlation measure. Using geometric representations, it will be shown that one is able to accept a predefined space or redefine the space. This redefinition may be accomplished through projections and two types of projections will be examined. It will be shown that using these concepts will impact an individual's perception of information items within the space. Thus, consideration of these factors is critical to the design of retrieval and SDI systems.