Information retrieval systems with database-selection aids

• US 20050010605A1
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DBA West Group, West Publishing Corporation (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Conrad, Jack G., Claussen, Joanne R.S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Some information retrieval systems, such as the Westlaw™ system, empower users to search thousands of databases. One problem with some systems is that the large number of databases makes it difficult for some users to identify the right database(s) to search. Accordingly, the inventors devised, among other things, new options for helping users target searches on the right databases. One exemplary option enables users to search sample-based database profiles. Another enables users to navigate to a category or subcategory in an online database directory and search databases or database profiles associated with the category. And, yet another enables users to select a query-category and receive a list of relevant database choices, a list of links into a database directory, or a sequence of follow-up questions. One or more of these or other disclosed innovations enable users to execute more effective search strategies, while potentially reducing computational burdens on information retrieval systems.

Claims

1. An information retrieval system comprising:

a plurality of databases; and

a server for providing client access to the plurality of databases, wherein the server includes;

database-selection means for enabling a user to select one of a first or set of categories, with each of the first set of categories associated with a subset of the plurality of databases and each of the second set of categories associated with a respective set of interactive control features for requesting additional category-specific information from the user;

database-navigation means for providing a user-navigable directory of at least a subset of the plurality of databases, with the directory including;

one or more beginning, intermediate, and terminal nodes, with each intermediate node associated with at least one of the beginning nodes and one or more terminal nodes, and each terminal node associated with a subset of the plurality of databases; and

one or more sets of interactive control features, with each set of control features associated with a corresponding one of the intermediate nodes for enabling the user to query a set of databases including databases associated with each terminal node that is associated with the one of the intermediate nodes; and

database-discovery means for receiving a user-defined query, for executing the received query against a profile database including profiles of one of more of the plurality of databases, and for identifying one or more databases from the plurality of databases based on computed relevance of the corresponding profiles to the received query, wherein the query includes a plurality of terms and the computed relevance includes a bias based on geographic, jurisdictional, or generic terms in the query.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one access device coupled to the server, the one access device including a browser for facilitating user interaction with the database-selection means, the database-navigation means, or the database-discovery means.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one of more of the plurality of databases includes case-law documents.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of sample-based database profiles, with at least one of the profiles associated with one or more databases in the plurality of databases.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality metadata-based database profiles, with at least one of the profiles associated with one or more databases in the plurality of databases.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising at least one access device coupled to the server, the one access device including a browser for facilitating user interaction with the database-selection means.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein one of more of the plurality of databases includes case-law documents.

6. An information retrieval system comprising:

a plurality of databases; and

a server for providing client access to the plurality of databases, wherein the server includes;

database-selection means for enabling a user to categorize desired information as one of a first set of predefined categories or a second set of predefined categories, with each of the first set of categories associated with a predetermined subset of the plurality of databases and each of the second set of categories associated with a set of interactive control features for requesting additional category-specific information from the user.

9. A method comprising:

receiving user input categorizing an information need;

determining whether the user input corresponds to a first or a second type of category;

in response to determining that the user input corresponds to the first category type;

requesting user input defining a first query, and in response to receipt of the query; and

executing the defined first query against a set of one or more databases based on the user input categorizing the information need; and

in response to determining that the user input corresponds to the second category type, requesting additional user input regarding the information need.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the recited acts are performed in the order recited.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising outputting a list of categories, before receiving user input categorizing the information need.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the list of categories includes at least one of government agencies, legal issues, named entities, and other.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein requesting additional user input regarding the information need comprises:

requesting a first user selection of one of a first set of two or more options; and

requesting one or more second user selections of one of a second set of options, wherein the second set of options is contingent on the first user selection.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

requesting user input defining a second query, in response to the second user selection; and

executing the defined second query against a set of databases based on the second user selection.

15. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions for causing output of first and second information categories to a display device, with each first information category associated with a set of first interactive control features for causing execution of a user-defined query against a corresponding set of databases associated with the first information category and each second information category associated with a set of second interactive control features for requesting additional information based on a corresponding decision tree.

16. The medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions, contingent on one or more of the second interactive control features, for:

requesting a first user selection of one of a first set of two or more options; and

requesting a second user selection of one of a second set of options, wherein the second set of options is contingent on the first user selection.

17. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions, contingent on the second user selection, for causing execution of the user-defined query against a set of databases based on the second user selection.

18. A method comprising:

providing an interface for receiving user input regarding an information need;

in response to determining that the received user input relates to a first type of information need, presenting a list of user-selectable databases; and

in response to determining that the received user input relates to a second type of information need, presenting a list of one or more links to nodes of a browsable database directory.

19. The method of claim 18:

wherein providing the interface for receiving user input regarding an information need, comprises providing a plurality of three or more user selectable interface elements, with each element associated with a corresponding information category;

wherein selection of at least one of a first subset of the user selectable interface elements is associated with the first type of information and selection of at least one of a second subset of the user selectable interface elements is associated with the second type of information.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein a first one of the interface elements is associated a legal category, a second one of the interface elements is associated with a news category, and a third one of the interface elements is associated with an “

other”

category.

21. A machine readable medium comprising instructions for:

outputting an interface for receiving user input regarding an information need;

outputting a list of user-selectable databases, in response to determining that the received user input relates to a first type of information; and

outputting a list of one or more links to nodes of a browsable database directory, in response to determining that the received user input relates to a second type of information.

22. The medium of claim 21:

wherein the instructions for providing the interface for receiving user input regarding an information need, comprises instructions for providing a plurality of three or more user selectable interface elements, with each element associated with a corresponding information category; and

wherein selection of at least one of a first subset of the user selectable interface elements is associated with the first type of information and selection of at least one of a second subset of the user selectable interface elements is associated with the second type of information.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein a first one of the interface elements is associated a legal category, a second one of the interface elements is associated with a news category, and a third one of the interface elements is associated with an other category.

24. An information retrieval system comprising:

a plurality of databases; and

a server for providing client access to the plurality of databases, wherein the server includes means for providing a user-navigable database directory that includes one or more interactive control features for enabling a user to direct execution of a search against a data set that is contingent on a current navigation position of the user within the database directory.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising at least one access device coupled to the server, the one access device including a browser for facilitating user interaction with the database directory.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein one of more of the plurality of databases includes case-law documents.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the user-navigable database directory includes:

one or more beginning, intermediate, and terminal nodes, with each intermediate node associated with at least one of the beginning nodes and one or more terminal nodes, and each terminal node associated with a subset of the plurality of databases; and

one or more sets of interactive control features, with each set of control features associated with a corresponding one of the intermediate nodes for enabling the user to query a predefined set of databases including databases associated with each terminal node that is associated with the one of the intermediate nodes.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the data set comprises at least one metadata-based profile for one of the plurality of databases.

29. The system of claim 24, wherein the data set comprises at least one sample-based profile for one of the plurality of databases.

30. A method comprising:

displaying one or more portions of a directory for a plurality of databases on a client device, the directory including one or more beginning, intermediate, and terminal nodes, with each intermediate node associated with at least one of the beginning nodes and one or more of the terminal nodes, and each terminal node associated with a subset of the plurality of databases; and

in response to user selection of one of the intermediate nodes of the directory, presenting an option for searching a predefined set of databases including the subset of databases associated with each terminal node that is associated with the selected one of the intermediate nodes.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

requesting a query in response to user selection of the presented option for searching; and

in response to submission of the requested query, executing the query against the predefined set of databases.

32. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions for providing a user-navigable directory of a plurality of databases, with the directory including:

a plurality of beginning, intermediate, and terminal nodes, with each intermediate node associated with one of the beginning nodes and one or more of the terminal nodes, and each terminal node associated with a respective subset of the plurality of databases; and

one or more sets of interactive control features, with each set of control features associated with a corresponding one of the intermediate nodes for enabling a user to query a predefined set of databases including the respective subset of databases associated with the terminal nodes that are associated with the corresponding one of the intermediate nodes.

33. The medium of claim 32, wherein each set of control features associated with a corresponding one of the intermediate nodes, includes:

a user-selection feature for selecting a search option;

a query-input feature, responsive to the user-selection feature, for requesting a query input; and

a query-submission feature for submitting the query for execution.

34. The medium of claim 32, wherein the medium is an electronic, magnetic, or optical medium.

35. A method for use with a user-navigable online directory of a plurality of databases, with the directory having a plurality of nodes and each node associated with one or more of the databases, the method comprising:

in response to user input identifying one of the nodes of the directory, causing display of at least one of the plurality nodes in association with a set of interactive control features for defining and submitting a query; and

in response to a user submitting the query, searching a data set associated with a subset of the plurality of databases, with the searched data set contingent on position of the identified one of the nodes within the directory.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein one of more of the plurality of databases includes case-law documents.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the data set comprises at least one metadata-based profile for one of the plurality of databases.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the data set comprises at least one sample-based profile for one of the plurality of databases.

39. A method comprising:

displaying one or more portions of a directory for a plurality of databases on a client device, the directory including one or more beginning, intermediate, and terminal nodes, with each intermediate node associated with at least one of the beginning nodes and one or more of the terminal nodes, and each terminal node associated with a subset of the plurality of databases or a subset of corresponding database profiles; and

in response to user selection of one of the intermediate nodes of the directory, presenting an option for searching a predefined subset of the databases or their corresponding database profiles, with the predefined set including the databases or corresponding database profiles associated with each terminal node that is associated with the selected one of the intermediate nodes.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

requesting a query in response to user selection of the presented option for searching; and

in response to submission of the requested query, executing the query against the predefined subset of the databases or their corresponding database profiles.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein each database profile is based on a language model of the corresponding database.

42. A method comprising:

searching a set of sample-based database profiles based on a query, with each profile associated with a respective database and defined as a document representing terms or phrases and their corresponding frequencies.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the query includes one or more query terms, and the method further comprises:

ranking relevance of two or more of the sample-based database profiles, wherein ranking relevance includes determining a relevance score for one or more of the database profiles based on frequency of one or more of the query terms within the database profile and based on frequency of the one or more of the query terms across the set of database profiles.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein ranking relevance further includes:

determining whether the query contains any jurisdictionally relevant terms; and

in response to determining that the query contains no jurisdictionally relevant terms, down-weighting each database profile associated with a jurisdictionally biased database relative to ranking of other database profiles that are not jurisdictionally biased.

45. The method of claim 44, further comprising:

identifying a set of N databases based on results of ranking relevance of the two or more database profiles, with N being a whole number; and

searching one or more of the N databases.

46. A method comprising:

receiving a query including a plurality of terms;

identifying one or more terms of the query as belonging to one or more term categories; and

determining search results based on the query, with at least one search result associated with a relevance score based on the identification of at least one of the terms.

47. The method of claim 46:

wherein identifying one or more of the terms includes determining that one or more of the terms is related to a location or a legal-practice area; and

wherein determining search results based on the query, includes computing an term-frequency-and-inverse-document-frequency-based score for the one term and up-weighting the computed score in response to the determination that the one term is related to a location or a legal-practice area.

48. The method of claim 46:

wherein identifying one or more of the terms includes determining that one or more of the terms is a generic legal term; and

wherein determining search results based on the query, includes computing an inverse-document-frequency-based score for the one term and down-weighting the computed score in response to the determination that it is related to a generic legal concept.

49. The method of claim 46, wherein determining that one or more of the terms is a generic legal term includes determining whether the term is “

law,”

“

regulation,”

“

code,”

“

department,”

“

cases,”

“

reporter,”

or “

journal.”

50. The method of claim 46, wherein determining whether a term is a generic legal term includes determining utility of the term as a discriminator of one document from another similar document or one database from another database.

51. A method comprising:

receiving a query from a user; and

determining relevance of a set of databases, based on the received query, wherein determining relevance includes;

determining whether the query includes jurisdictionally specific content; and

if the determination is that the query does not include jurisdictionally specific content, down-weighting the determined relevance of each database that is jurisdictionally biased relative to other found databases that are not jurisdictionally biased.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

determining whether to automatically execute the received query against one or more of the identified databases.

53. A method of processing a query, comprising:

in response to receiving a query including one or more terms, determining whether one or more of the terms match one or more terms in a database; and

in response to determining that at least one of the terms do not have a match in the database, defining a character cluster for the one of the terms, wherein the cluster includes fewer characters than the one term.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the one term includes a first character and one or more subsequent consonant characters;

wherein the defined character cluster includes at least the first character of the term.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the character cluster further includes at least two of the subsequent characters, with each of the two subsequent characters being a consonant.

56. The method of claim 53, wherein defining the character cluster occurs in response to determining that the one term is not listed in an exception list.

57. The method of claim 53, wherein defining the character cluster occurs in response to determining that the one term includes at least a given number of characters.

67. The method of claim 57, wherein the predetermined relationship is based on a differential relevance value.

58. A method comprising:

in response to receiving a query, identifying a plurality of documents relevant to the query, with at least one of the documents having a plurality of portions; and

determining a relevance score for each identified document, wherein determining the relevance score for each of the documents having a plurality of portions includes;

determining a plurality of portion relevance scores, with each portion relevance score quantifying relevance of a respective one of the portions to the received query; and

determining the relevance score for the document based on one of the plurality of portion relevance scores, with the one of the plurality of portion relevance scores associated with a most relevant one of the portions of the document.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the query includes one or more terms, and each portion relevance score is based on an inverse document frequency of one or more of the terms.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein one or more of the portions is delineated by mark-up language tags.

61. The method of claim 58, wherein each of the documents profiles a corresponding database.

62. A method comprising:

determining at least first and second relevance scores for a document, with the first relevance score representing relevance of a first portion of the document to a query, the second relevance score representing relevance of a second portion of the document to the query; and

determining a relevance score for the document, with the relevance score determination substantially excluding one of the first and second relevance scores.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the relevance score determination for the document completely excludes the one of the first and second scores.

64. The method of claim 62, wherein one or more of the portions is delineated by mark-up language tags.

65. The method of claim 62, wherein each of the documents profiles a corresponding database.

66. A method comprising:

ranking a plurality of databases based on a query

outputting a list of N ranked databases of the plurality of databases, after ranking the plurality of databases, wherein each of the N databases has a preceding or succeeding database in the list, and each is associated with a relevance score that has a predetermined relationship with a relevance score associated with the preceding or succeeding database.

68. A method of operating an information retrieval system, comprising:

providing a first search-assistance tool accessible through an online interface to the information retrieval system and including one or more interactive control features that allow a user to search metadata-based database profiles; and

providing a second search-assistance tool accessible through the online interface, and including one or more interactive control features that allow a user to find databases by searching sample-based database profiles.