On analysing query ambiguity for query refinement: The librarian agent approach

Abstract

In this paper, we present an approach for the disambiguation of ontology-based queries. The approach is based on measuring the ambiguity of a query with respect to the user's initial information need. We define several types of ambiguities concerning the structure of the underlying ontology and the content of the information repository. For each of these ambiguities we define a set of refinements/explanations, which helps in more efficient searching for information in an ontology-based information repository. We demonstrate the benefits of using our approach in an evaluation study. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.