Guide to Z39.50/PRISE 2.0:

Its Installation, Use, & Modification

Z39.50/PRISE 2.0 consists of a minimal Z39.50-1995 UNIX (Solaris) client-server pair and prototype indexing and search engines (PRISE) developed by NIST. The server is designed to isolate the search engine from the details of the Z39.50 protocol and minimize the effort needed to interface the server to natural language search engines other than PRISE.

NIST Disclaimer

The Z39.50/PRISE software produced by NIST, an agency of the U.S. government, is by statute not subject to copyright in the United States. Recipients of this software assume all responsibilities associated with its operation, modification and maintenance.

What's New in Z39.50/PRISE 2.0 (over 1.0)

PRISE Search

• Supports relevance feedback

Relevance feedback is a technique for query enhancement for more effective search and retrieval. After performing a search and retrieving a set of documents, the user provides the information retrieval (IR) application with feedback by designating documents as good examples of the sort of information the user is searching for. The user can then ask the IR application to show suggested terms for addition to the query - terms derived from exemplary documents - and add them or not, before performing the next search. This cycle can be repeated.

PRISE Index

• Additional options for:
  • Staged processing
  • Weighting functions

ZClient

• Supports relevance feedback
• Logs user interface events
• Uses Tk 4.0 and Tcl 7.4 (Not compatible with earlier versions!)
• Some snapshots of the user interface (JPEG files ~250k bytes each )
1. 

   Simple keyword query, resulting titles list, and full document display

2. 

   Boolean restriction added to the the previous query

3. 

   Additional query terms suggested by ZPRISE using relevance feedback

Documentation Outline

Introduction
Functional specification
Installing and making Z39.50/PRISE
Setting up ZClient and ZServer using the inet demon
Testing using the shipped collection
Design notes: PRISE index PRISE search ZClient ZServer
Adding/substituting your own search engine
Indexing your own collections
ZPrise downloads (password required)
To obtain the logon and password needed to access the ZPrise downloads please submit a request to Darrin Dimmick, darrin.dimmick@nist.gov with a cc to Paul Over, paul.over@nist.gov.

Our group has an additional package you may find interesting. IRF a freely available object-oriented framework for information retrieval (IR)applications. For additional information please visit the website.

For more information contact Darrin Dimmick.