Children’s Information Retrieval

Children’s Information Retrieval

The digital world is the go-to place for obtaining information of any kind. Even kids prefer using digital libraries over physical libraries now. The classroom is no longer the primary source of knowledge for the current generation of kids.
The interfaces of these digital libraries are designed by the adults based on their personal search experiences. However, the search preferences for a kid vary markedly in comparison to those of an adult, making the results of search engines designed for adults mostly irrelevant for children.
Isn’t it therefore of paramount importance that search interfaces be designed for children in accordance with their personal needs so that they can get the most relevant information?
The term “Children’s Information retrieval” points to the issue of getting the most relevant information for children based on their search queries.
Most children grow up using computers, and are often even better equipped than many adults to handle computer-based work. However, researchers have discovered many differences between the searching strategies of adults and those of children. Some of the differences are:
  1. Children generally make more spelling mistakes.
  2. Children scroll less than adults.
  3. Adults have a more systematic navigation style.
  4. Children use different relevance criteria from those used by adults.
  5. Children have different concepts and categories in mind.
  6. Children write shorter and more concise queries.
On the basis of the above mentioned differences, any search query can be recognised as being performed by an adult or by a child. An analysis of the differences also helps develop a better understanding of the information needs of children.
Another key issue in Children’s Information Retrieval is query formulation. Query formulation strategies depend on the thinking process of children. To further complicate the issue, even these strategies vary significantly from one age group to another. It is probably not appropriate to categorise all children (people under the age of 16) into one category, since the brain’s ability to comprehend information changes drastically in this growing period. To better understand the thinking process of children, surveys, interviews, task analysis, focussed group discussions and other similar activities should be performed. These activities will be helpful in drawing inferences about the thinking process of children belonging to several different age groups. Child psychologists can also help us better understand how the brain of a child works.
The last core issue in Children’s Information Retrieval is “ranking”. How should we rank the results so that the documents most relevant to children appear in the top K results? This is probably the most important question, as the performance of the system is dependent on the precision and efficiency of the topmost results.
Let’s say, we have two documents which both contain articles written on a particular topic. Doc1 consists of vocabulary terms frequently used in daily life, while Doc2 consists of many technical and uncommon terms. Which document should be preferred if the search has been performed by a child? The answer is quite intuitive. A child will definitely prefer Doc1, since it will be easier for him/her to comprehend. In most IR systems, documents with high idf scores (more rare terms) are preferred over documents that have a collection of commonly used terms. However, basic intuition suggests that for a child, simple vocabulary wins out over complex vocabulary, and preference should be given to documents which consist of a lesser number of rare terms. A high tf score and a low idf score should help a document obtain a higher rank.
This topic is still in the early stages of research. Information retrieval systems should be developed considering the needs of children, as more and more children are using digital libraries to expand their knowledge. The digital world should become more accessible for the future generation of thinkers. Let us nurture the Einsteins of this world to make this world a better place.

References
[1] Hanna Jochmann-Mannak, Theo Huibers, and Ted Sanders. 2008. Children's information retrieval: beyond examining search strategies and interfaces ”In Proceedings of the 2nd BCS IRSG conference on Future Directions in Information Access (FDIA'08)” BCS Learning & Development Ltd., Swindon, UK, 8-8.

Comments