User Profiling on a Pilot Digital Library with the Final Result of a New Adaptive Knowledge Management Solution

Abstract

In this article, several procedures (e.g., measurements, information retrieval analyses, power law, association rules, hierarchical clustering) are introduced which were made on a pilot digital library. Information retrievals of web users from 01/01/2003 to 01/01/2006 on the internal search engine of the pilot digital library have been analyzed. With the power law method of data processing, a constant information retrieval pattern has been established, stable over a longer period of time. After this, the data have been analyzed. On the basis of the accomplished measurements and analyses, a series of mental models of web users for global (educational) purposes have been developed (e.g., the metamodel of thought hierarchy of web users, the segmentation model of web users), and the users were profiled in four different groups (adventurers, observers, applicable, and know-alls). The article concludes with the construction of a new knowledge management solution called multidimensional rank thesaurus.