Self-Organized Alerting and Search Services

[Gerry Mckiernan]

                  _Self-Organized Alerting and Search Services_

   In a recent posting , I informed various e-lists of the availability  of a sophisticated index to _Astrophysical Journal_ that was brought to my attention by Peter B. Boyce - Senior Consultant for Electronic Publishing,  American Astronomical Society (AAS) 
    
           [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0101/0200.html  ] 

   This index makes uses of an artificial intelligence, neural network technique  known as Self-Organized Feature (or Semantic) Maps (SOMs)
developed by Teuvo Kohonen  [ http://www.cis.hut.fi/teuvo/ ] and colleagues at the Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Computer and Information Science, Neural Networks Research Centre 
[ http://www.cis.hut.fi/research/ ] and elsewhere.

[Prof. Kohonen is author of numerous papers on SOMs (and other subjects) as well as editions of _Self-Organizing Maps_ published by Springer [http://www.springer-ny.com/detail.tpl?ISBN=3540620176 ] 
  
   In thinking about the potential benefit of navigating Information Space with the _Astrophysical Journal_, it occurred to me the application of SOM to a database of e-journal TOC and/or abstract Alerts would provide highly-valued added access that could greatly facilitate and improve access and use of the content of such alerts.

  SOM might also be quite useful in navigating the contents of
hosted user Filing Cabinets for saved articles by readers
[SEE  EJI(sm), my latest registry devoted to innovative e-journal features, functionalities, and content] 

[ http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/EJI.htm ]

for examples of Virtual Filing Cabinets

[One could also envision a SOM database to navigate the citations of an individual e-journal articles and their associated links adding visualization to the CrossRef project [ http://www.crossref.org/ ] and other reference linking projects] 

    I'd appreciate any reactions to my proposals and would be in Seventh Heaven to learn that  such applications indeed do already exist!
[Other potential application in navigating e-journal features, functions, and content would also be of interest]

    As Always, Any and All contributions, comments, queries, questions, critiques, Cosmic Insights, Super Bowl Predictions, etc., etc., etc.. are  Most Welcome!

    Regards,

/Gerry McKiernan
Self-Organized AND Alert Librarian
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu