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