paths presentation at york university

Using Pathways for Navigating and Personalised Access to Cultural Heritage Materials

Paul Clough

The Information School University of Sheffield

Presentation at York University, 2nd June 2011

The Information School

• Formerly known as the Department of Information Studies– Formed in 1963 (PG School of Librarianship)– Now in the faculty of social science– http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/

• Leading researchers past and present include– Tom Wilson– Micheline Beaulieu– Steve Whittaker– Mark Sanderson– Peter Willett– Nigel Ford

• Now part of the emerging iSchool movement


Sheffield IR group

• Four academics– Prof. Nigel Ford (group leader)– Dr. Paul Clough– Dr. Robert Villa– Prof. Elaine Toms (currently Dalhousie University)

• Four RAs– Paula Goodale and Mark Hall (PATHS)– Evangelos Kanoulas (EFireEval)– Monica Paramita (ACCURAT)

• Currently 6 PhD students– Mixture of library and information science and computer science

backgrounds


My areas of research

• Text re-use and plagiarism detection• Multilingual information access• Geographical Information Retrieval (GIR)• Multimedia retrieval (images)• Evaluation of IR systems• User interfaces and interaction• Construction of corpora and evaluation

resources

http://ir.shef.ac.uk/cloughie/


Recent and current research projects

• Mining imprecise regions from the Web (EPSRC and Ordnance Survey)

• Improving Information Finding at the UK National Archives (TNA)

• User-Centered Design of a Recommender System for a 'Universal' Library Catalogue (AHRC and OCLC Inc.)

• Analysis and evaluation of Comparable Corpora for Under Resourced Areas of machine Translation (EU FP7)

• Personalised Access to Cultural Heritage Spaces (EU FP7)


Providing Personalised Access to Cultural Heritage Spaces

http://www.paths-project.eu/

Clough, P. Stevenson, M & Ford, N. (2011) Personalising Access to Cultural Heritage Collections using Pathways, In Proceedings of Workshop on Personalised Access To Cultural Heritage (PATCH ‘11), IUI 2011.


Information access in Cultural Heritage

• Significant amounts of CH material available online– Web portals, digital libraries, aggregated portals (e.g.

Europeana), Wikipedia, …

• Users may find it difficult to navigate and interpret wealth of information– keyword-based access provides limited success– many users are not domain or subject experts– limited support for knowledge exploration and discovery

• Contrast with traditional mechanisms (e.g. museums)• Cultural institutions looking at new ways of providing

rich user experiences to support lifelong learning – user participation (e.g. web2.0), personalisation, …


Personalisation in Cultural Heritage

• Over 20 years of research in using personalisation to improve the user experience in cultural heritage– adapt the suggestion and presentation of information

(adaptive hypermedia systems) for physical and virtual worlds– well-suited application domain for personalisation

• Involves modelling users, groups and communities to provide appropriate content – provides personalised learning experiences

– Recent emphasis on semantic and social web– development of collection-specific ontologies (e.g. CHIP)– user-generated content seen as a useful form of metadata

– Derived from: Ardissono et al. (forthcoming 2011)


Typical user groups in cultural heritage

• General user– e.g. cultural tourist

• School child• Academic user

– students – teachers

• Expert researcher– e.g. museum curators

• Professional user,– e.g. librarian, archivist, etc

Derived from Europeana user studieshttp://www.europeana.org


Uses of cultural heritage websites

• For entertainment/leisure– general interest, browsing

• To gain new knowledge– specific interest, targeted

• To locate interesting items– purposive, pre-visit

• To develop communities of interest– sharing – opinions, knowledge, personal artefacts– social platform

Derived from Europeana user studies

http://www.europeana.org


Information seeking behaviours

• Information tasks by professionals (Amin et al., 2008)– information gathering (63.0%)– information exchange (13.0%)– fact-finding (10.2%)– keeping-up-to-date (8.3%)– information maintenance (5.6%)

• Information seeking by non-experts (Skov & Ingwersen, 2008)– focus on virtual museum visitors– broad coverage of needs/characteristics– educational purposes including making

sense of items in a collection

• Topic search• Comparison• Combination• Exploration• Relationship search

• Highly visual experience• Meaning making• Known-item searching• Exploratory behaviour


Related projects

• Steve: the museum social tagging project– http://www.steve.museum/

• The SmartMuseum project– http://www.smartmuseum.eu/

• Personal Experience with Active Cultural Heritage– http://peach.fbk.eu/home.html

• Cultural Heritage Information Personalisation– http://www.chip-project.org/

• Personalisation of the Digital Library Experience– http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/imls/poodle/

• The Ensemble (Walden’s Paths) project– http://ensemble.tamu.edu/walden_info


Personalised Access To cultural Heritage Spaces (PATHS)

• STREP funded under the FP7 programme• Duration of 36 months

– 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2013

• Budget – 3,199,299 euros in total– 2,300,000 euros EU grant

• 6 partners in 5 countries• Project management

– 334 person months– 8 work packages– 22 deliverables


The consortium

• Two universities– Sheffield University – Universidad del Pais Vasco

• Two technology enterprises– i-sieve technologies Ltd– Asplan Viak Internet Ltd

• Two cultural heritage enterprises– MDR Partners– Alinari 24 Ore Spa

• Additional content provider– Europeana


Additional user groups

• Wiltshire Heritage Museum• Imperial War Museum• The UK National Archives• Archaeology Data Service• Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze• Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes• Biblioteca Nacional de España


The project vision

• Provide functionality to support user’s knowledge discovery and exploration

• The use of pathways/trails to help users navigate and explore the information space

• The use of personalisation (e.g. recommender systems) to adapt views/paths to specific users, groups or communities of users

• Show links to other items within and external to an item to help users contextualise and interpret the item


Project objectives

• Analysis of users’ requirements for discovering knowledge and construction of pathways/trails

• Automated organisation and enrichment of Cultural Heritage content for use within a navigation system

• Implementation of a system for navigating Cultural Heritage resources applied to multiple data sources

• Techniques for providing personalised access to Cultural Heritage content (e.g. recommender systems)

• Versions for use on mobile devices and Facebook• Evaluation with user groups and field trials


Research areas

• Information Access– user-driven navigation through collections of information– knowledge of users’ requirements for access to cultural heritage

collections – modelling of user preferences and navigational context

• Educational Informatics– adapting to individual learners in relation to being directed and

being allowed the freedom to explore autonomously

• Content Interpretation and Enrichment– representation and sharing of information about items in Digital

Libraries– identifying background information related to the items in cultural

heritage collections (e.g. links to Wikipedia pages)


Pathways for navigation and personalisation

• Navigation through the information space is based around the metaphor of “paths”– flexible model of navigation and exploration onto which various

levels of personalisation can be added

• Paths can provide the following information– a history of where the user has been– suggestions of where the user might go next– a narrative/story through a set of items

• Items in a path can be ordered– chronologically – thematically– ...

Which can be adapted and mapped to an individual’s learning styles

Can be done manually or automatically


• Trails (Memex, 1945)– Associative trails explicitly created by users forming links

between stored materials to help others navigate• Destinations (search engines and web analytics)

– Origin/landing page (from query), intermediate pages and destination page

• Search strategies (information seeking)– Users moving between information sources, perhaps due to

changes in their information needs (e.g. Berrypicking)• Guided tours (hypertext)

– authors create sequence of pages useful to others (manual)– automatically generated trails to assist with web navigation– used in educational informatics and cultural heritage

Paths/trails have been studied in many fields


Existing paths/trails in cultural heritage

• The Ensemble (Walden’s Paths) project– http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/walden/– allow educators to arrange web pages into a series of sequential

paths on specific topics– educators can add comments at each node– highly prescriptive and users cannot deviate from paths

• Thematic trails – Louvre– http://www.louvre.fr/llv/activite/liste_parcours.jsp?bmLocale=en– selection of works that typify a period, artistic movement or

theme (routes provide narrative when viewing physical objects)– trails can be viewed online or printed prior to visit to museum– prescriptive with limited interactivity and personalisation


Creating paths: an example

Existing subject knowledge

Example produced by Jillian Griffiths (MMU)

Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid

Aeneas Telling Dido of the Disaster at Troy, 1815by Pierre Narcisse Guérin

The opera recounts the love story of Dido, Queen of Carthage and the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair at his abandonment of her.

Joh. Heinrich d.Ä. Tischbein "Dido and Aeneas escape to a cave before the thunderstorm"

Dido, also known as Elissa, was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first Queen of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia). She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid.

The Death of Dido, by Andrea Sacchi

Aeneas in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy (with help from Aphrodite), which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid.

Aeneas defeats Turnus, by Luca Giordano, 1634‐1705

Dido and Aeneas is a monumental work in Baroque opera, it is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was Purcell's first (and only) all-sung opera and is among the earliest English operas. It owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and overall effect. It is notable for its use of a Ground bass or basso ostinato(obstinate bass) - a type of variation form in which a bass line, or harmonic pattern is repeated as the basis of a piece underneath variations

Henry Purcell, by John Closterman(died 1711)

Nahum Tate (1652, Dublin – July 30, 1715, Liberty of the Mint) was an Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who became England's poet laureate in 1692.

One of the most well known arias is Dido’s Lament, otherwise known as ‘When I am laid in earth’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_50zj7J50U Dame Janet Baker sings one of the most beautiful arias of all opera, from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

Glyndebourne, 1966. Conductor: Charles Mackerras

• Virgil• Virgil's Aeneid, Book IV• Dido, Queen of Carthage• Carthage - in modern-day Tunisia• Aeneas• Troy• The founding of the city Rome• Baroque music• Ground bass• Henry Purcell• John Blow• John Blow's Venus and Adonis• Nahum Tate• Famous performances and recordings• ...• ...

Further paths

Our view of pathways

• A path is a ‘route’ through an information space– defined as collections of cultural heritage resources– consists of nodes and links to connect nodes (graph)

• Nodes can be connected in different ways– pre-computed based on similarity between items– computed on-the-fly (automated) and personalised– defined by system/designers (guided paths)– defined by users (individual or collectively)

• Exist as information objects in their own right– can be indexed, organised and shared with others, and will be

potential learning objects that can be offered to users alongside the cultural heritage content


Paths through an information space

Subject knowledge (e.g. taxonomy)

search

Start

Destination

recommendations

Start DestinationKnowledge discovery / storytelling

e.g. WW II


Independent paths

• Users can construct their own “independent paths”– can be saved for future reference, edited or shared with others– e.g. “Sheffield steel industry”, “my favourite works by Rembrandt”

or “items seen during my trip to London on 6th Feb 2010”

• More than a simple list of items in a collection that the user has visited (i.e. bookmarks)– also contain information about the links between the items

(relationships)– descriptive text (e.g. annotations, tags)– details of others items connected to them– connections to information both within and outside the collection

that provides context


• Users can also follow pre-defined “guided paths”– created by domain experts, such as scholars or teachers

• Provide an easily accessible entry point to the collection– can be followed in their entirety – or left at any point to create an “independent path”

• Guided paths can be based around any theme– artist and media (“paintings by Picasso”)– historic periods (“the Cold War”)– places (“Venice”)– famous people (“Muhammed Ali”)– emotions (“happiness”)– events (“the World Cup”) – or any other topic (e.g. “Europe”, “food”)

Guided paths


• Groups of users can work collectively to create “collaborative paths”– adding new routes of discovery and annotations that can build

upon the contributions made by others

• Could be used to encourage social interaction– students working on a group project - the output of which is a

trail/pathways– experts working in collaboration to create exhibitions or trails

• Paths may also help identify individuals interested in the same topics and themes– identifying where the pathways cross-over

Collaborative paths


Users and their goals

• Some users may want to create paths as their specific goal (e.g.instructors and curators) – producers– locate and save nodes related to certain themes or subjects– creating learning resources for non-experts by constructing narratives– these experts manually create guided paths but may benefit from

assistance with locating and constructing paths• Some users specifically come with the intention of following trails

(e.g. students and museum visitors) - consumers – non-experts following static paths created by experts– may deviate from static paths and create individual paths

• Other users may not intend generate or follow paths per se– don’t specifically save nodes during their searching– may benefit from paths as a record of interaction for future use– generate paths through user-system interaction, allow post-editing


User studies

• Focus on studying the activities of people who create pathways– curators, educators, professional historians …– currently interviewing subjects from a range of cultural heritage and

educational organisations (from the user groups)• Want to find out the following

– Who creates paths and for what purpose(s)?– What processes/tasks are involved in creating paths?– What criteria are used to select items to include in paths?– How are paths adapted to specific audiences?– What tools are used to help create paths and how are they presented?– Where do paths begin and where do they end?

• Also want to gather the requirements/needs of the consumers– based on user characteristics, how do users follow paths?


Research Literature

Quantitative: user profiles,

info needs and behaviour, cognitive styles

Qualitative: meanings and uses of paths, task analysis

Implicit pathways: log data analysis

Explicit pathways: user‐generated

Explicit pathways: expert‐generated

User‐based evaluation criteria:

Desk research: review of previous user studies, comparisons of

published paths and path‐making tools, sentiment analysis

Iterative system development and testing

System evaluation

Prototyping

System refinements

Final system design

User requirements

Contextual analysis and competitor analysis

Initial conceptual model

• Different users will have differing needs from pathways– system will make user-specific recommendations about items of

potential interest as individuals navigate through the collection• Build up knowledge and understanding of users

– cognitive styles– expertise/subject knowledge– age– gender– language abilities– system interactions (implicit)

• User will be offered links to information both within and outside the collection – provide contextual and background information, individually

tailored to each user and their context

Adapting to individuals and groups

explicit User model


Learning and knowledge discovery

• A particular area of focus in PATHS will be on learning and knowledge discovery– help people as they use cultural heritage resources to learn and

discover new knowledge

• People learn and solve problems differently– some people require a lot of guiding; others are self-directed– some people welcome irrelevant material; others are intolerant– some people creatively explore and come up with new ideas;

others want to simply answer a set problem

• Users may perform information seeking– must navigate through information spaces– different people may require different levels of assistance


Autonomous

Dependent

Local(analytic)

Global

Key cognitive dimensions (Pask and Witkin)

Adopting a navigation path that matches one’s predominant style can influence the effectiveness of the resultant learning.

Local (analytic) Global

Learning/problem-solving goals

Convergent goals.“Find an answer”.Learn pre-defined content.

Divergent goals.Creatively explore.Come up with new ideas.

Process goals

Concerned with procedures and vertical deep detail (procedure building).

Concerned with conceptual overview and horizontal broad inter-relationships (description building).

Navigation styles

Serialist navigation styleNarrow focus.One thing at a time.Short logical links between nodes.Intolerance of strictly irrelevant material.Finish with one topic before going on to the next.

Holist navigation styleBroad global focus.Many things on the go at the same time.Rich links between nodes.Welcoming of enrichment (but strictly irrelevant) material.Layered approach returning to nodes at different level of detail.

Positive learning outcomes

Good grasp of detailed evidence.Deep understanding of individual topics.In-depth understanding of the parts.

Well developed conceptual overview.Broad inter-relationship of ideas.Good grasp of the “big picture”.

Characteristic learning pathologies

Poor appreciation of topic inter-relationships.Failing to see the “big picture”.

Poor grasp of detail.Over-generalisation.

Realising our vision

• Stage 1 leads towards functionality of prototype 1– simple functionality for allowing registration of users– functionality to allow users to manually generate, organise and

share static paths– visualisations of document space and provision of basic

functionality for searching and browsing

• Stage 2 leads towards functionality of prototype 2– focus on personalisation and recommendation (creating paths

dynamically and navigating the document space)– advanced visualisation and search/browse functionalities

• Stage 3 generates the additional applications– adapt functionality for Facebook and mobile devices


Supporting exploration and discovery

• Explore different visualisations– provide representations of the document space (nodes and

connections) users can explore and drawing trails– personalise views to reduce irrelevant information

• Develop search and browse functionality – jump to specific nodes (e.g. query or through subject ontology)– explore relationships between nodes (e.g. “X student of Y”)– support for more exploratory search behaviours

• Supporting adaptation to specific user model– personalised views of results and the collection– personalised navigational paths through the collection– different forms of contextualisation for items (e.g. linking)


Creating, managing and sharing paths

• User registration and definition of custom settings– workspace area for registered users

• Functionality (and user interfaces) to allow people to create paths– save nodes discovered during search and browse– arrange and organise nodes– add metadata to nodes (e.g. description and annotations)– edit and refine paths (e.g. add and delete nodes)– automatically suggest nodes to add to paths

• Create paths as goal vs. create paths as side effect of interaction• Functionality to allow management of paths (as objects)• Functionality to allow users to follow created paths (users)

– presentation/visualisation of path (e.g. history list, graph)– path overlaid on document space (contextualised)


Developing user interfaces

• Advanced visualisations and overviews of info space– spatial metaphors for user interface– different types of collection overview and browsing– document space ordered thematically and hierarchically

• Automatic creation of themed collections and paths• Encouraging engagement with pathways

– games/quizzes, surprises and use of images– social interaction– diversity in recommendations

• Browsing using ostensive relevance feedback models– use past items (not one) to guide future direction of navigation

• Approaches for evaluating pathways


• Pathways offer powerful metaphor for navigation onto which personalisation can be added– main focus and areas of novelty for the project

• Paths can be used to support various styles of cognitive information processing– surface as different routes taken through information space

• Offering users suggested routes will – help them locate information in large collections– help encourage information exploration and discovery– help them fulfil broader activities (e.g. constructing knowledge)

• Ultimately paths could help enhance user’s information access experience of digital library resources– but we need to understand users and their specific needs for

creating, managing and sharing pathways

Summary


Contact

[email protected] for listening


PATHS is being funded from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 270082. We acknowledge the contribution of all project partners involved in PATHS in this presentation (see: http://www.paths-project.eu)

paths presentation at york university

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