Knowledge-based information retrieval

A knowledge-based system is used as a front-end to a very large database to increase the relevance of the information being retrieved. The subject domain of the data base is modelled in a semantic network and the queries to the database are expanded according to the semantic model. An experiment has been performed on a bibliographic database, by developing the prototype KNOWIT, a knowledge-based front-end to the information retrieval system ESA-QUEST¹. An experimental evaluation shows that the number of relevant bibliographic references retrieved with the knowledge-based front-end is significantly improved, without compromising the precision of the retrieval.