{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T00:06:41Z","timestamp":1787011601593,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[1982,2,1]],"date-time":"1982-02-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":381369600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1982,2,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>We report the results of a British Library Research and Development Department\u2010funded design study for an interactive information retrieval system which will determine structural representations of the anomalous states of knowledge (ASKs) underlying information needs, and attempt to resolve the anomalies through a variety of retrieval strategies performed on a database of documents represented in compatible structural formats. Part I discusses the background to the project and the theory underlying it, Part II (next issue) presents our methods, results and conclusions. Basic premises of the project were: that information needs are not in principle precisely specifiable; that it is possible to elicit problem statements from information system users from which representations of the ASK underlying the need can be derived; that there are classes of ASKs; and, that all elements of information retrieval systems ought to be based on the user's ASK. We have developed a relatively freeform interview technique for eliciting problem statements, and a statistical word co\u2010occurrence analysis for deriving network representations of the problem statements and abstracts. Structural characteristics of the representations have been used to determine classes of ASKs, and both ASK and information structures have been evaluated by, respectively, users and authors. Some results are: that interviewing appears to be a satisfactory technique for eliciting problem statements from which ASKs can be determined; that the statistical analysis produces structures which are generally appropriate both for documents and problem statements; that ASKs thus represented can be usefully classified according to their structural characteristics; and, that of thirty\u2010five subjects, only two had ASKs for which traditional \u2018best match\u2019 retrieval would be intuitively appropriate. The results of the design study indicate that at least some of our premises are reasonable, and that an ASK\u2010based information retrieval system is at least feasible.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1108\/eb026722","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,1,19]],"date-time":"2008-01-19T07:47:16Z","timestamp":1200728836000},"page":"61-71","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":704,"title":["ASK FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: PART I. BACKGROUND AND THEORY"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"N.J.","family":"BELKIN","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"R.N.","family":"ODDY","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"H.M.","family":"BROOKS","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"p_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.4630270302"},{"key":"p_2","volume-title":"Design studyfor an anomalous state of knowledge based information retrieval system","author":"BEIKIN N.J.","year":"1979"},{"key":"p_3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.4630270402"},{"key":"p_4","unstructured":"BELKIN, N. J. A concept of information for information science. Ph.D. Thesis,University of London, 1977."},{"key":"p_5","volume-title":"Proceedings of an international workshop on the cognitive viewpoint","author":"BELKIN N. J.","year":"1977"},{"key":"p_6","volume-title":"Theory and applications of information research. Proceedings of the Second International Research Forum in Information Science.","author":"BELKIN N. J.","year":"1980"},{"key":"p_7","volume-title":"Proceedings of the Second International Research Forum in Information Science. London: Mansell","author":"HARBO O.","year":"1980"},{"key":"p_8","volume-title":"The analysis of meaning: Informatics 5.","author":"HOLLNAGEL E.","year":"1979"},{"key":"p_9","first-page":"133","volume":"5","author":"BELKIN N. J","year":"1980","journal-title":"CanadianJournal of Information Science"},{"key":"p_10","unstructured":"ODDY, R. N. Referencesetrieval based on user-induced dynamic clustering. Ph.D. Thesis,University of Newcastleupon Tyne,1975."},{"key":"p_11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1108\/eb026631"},{"key":"p_12","first-page":"37","volume":"1","author":"ODDY R. N","year":"1911","journal-title":"Journal of Informatics"},{"key":"p_13","first-page":"62","volume":"2","author":"CLEMENT DAVIES C","year":"1978","journal-title":"Journal of Informatics"},{"key":"p_14","volume-title":"P\u00fcllach bei","author":"WERSIG G.","year":"1971"},{"key":"p_15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1108\/eb026702"},{"key":"p_16","volume-title":"The logic ofquestions and answers","author":"BELKNAP N. D.","year":"1976"},{"key":"p_17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/413148"},{"key":"p_18","volume-title":"N . J . : Lawrence Earlbaum Associates","author":"LEHNERT","year":"1978"},{"key":"p_19","unstructured":"CROFT, w. B. Organizing and searching large files of document descriptions. Ph.D. Thesis,Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 1978."},{"key":"p_20","volume-title":"Proceedings of an international workshop on the cognitive viewpoint","author":"DE MEY M.","year":"1977"},{"key":"p_21","volume-title":"Education for information science. Washington","author":"PAISLEY W. J.","year":"1965"},{"key":"p_22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.4630240204"},{"key":"p_23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5860\/crl_29_03_178"},{"key":"p_24","first-page":"40","volume":"14","author":"ROBERTSON S. 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