INVISQUE: Technology and Methodologies for Interactive Information Visualization and Analytics in Large Library Collections

When a user knows exactly what they are looking for most library systems are adequate for their needs. However, when the user's information needs are ill-defined - traditional library systems prove inadequate. This is because traditional library systems are not designed to support sense making rather for information retrieval. Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visualizations and visual analytics systems can support both sense making and information retrieval. In this paper, we present INVISQUE - an approach and experimental software for interactive visual search and query. INVISQUE uses an index card metaphor to display library content, organized in a way that visually integrates attributes such citations and date published, making it easy to pick out the most recent and most cited paper. It uses design techniques such as focus+context to reveal relationships between documents, while avoiding the "what-was-I-lookingfor?" problem.