THE APPLICATION OF CONCEPT SPACE TO THE AUTOMATED LIBRARIAN

THE AVAILABILITY OF MASSIVE DATA STORAGE AND HIGH-SPEED INFORMATION GATHERING SYSTEMS AGGRAVATES THE EXISTING PROBLEM OF PROCESSING AND CORRELATING THE DATA. INDEED^ THE PROCESSING AND CORRELATION REQUIREMENTS EXCEED THE CAPABILITIES OF BOTH HUMAN LIBRARIANS AND "FIRST-GENERATION" SOFTWARE. THE INFORMATION OVERLOAD RAISES NATIONAL-SECURITY CONCERNS WHERE SUCH INFORMATION-HANDLING SYSTEMS SUPPORT TIME-CRITICAL DECISION MAKING IN DEFENSE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT. MRJ PROPOSES TO RESPOND TO THE INFORMATION OVERLOAD WITH THE REFINEMENT OF OUR "SECOND-GENERATION" COMPUTER SOFTWARE LIBRARIAN. OUR SOLUTION USES CONCEPT SPACE^ DEFINED IN THE TEXTB TO PRODUCE A MORE CAPABLE SYSTEM FOR DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL AND INDEXING. MRJ HAS A CURRENT INDEPENDENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (IR&D) PROJECT THAT WILL DEVELOP THE BASIC TOOLS TO CREATE AND MANIPULATE CONCEPT SPACE. THIS PROPOSED SMALL-BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH EFFORT WILL DEVELOP THE SPECIFIC SOFTWARE TOOLS TO APPLY CONCEPT SPACE TO THE AUTOMATED LIBRARIAN PROBLEM. THE COMPLETION OF THE TASK WILL INCLUDE A SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION AND A REPORT ON OUR ANA^YSES . WE A^SO PROPOSE TO PRODUCE A PLAN FOR EVOLVING THE DEMONSTRATION SOFTWARE INTO THE PHASE II EFFORT.