Richard S. Marcus2014-05-302014-05-302007http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/2028A number of efforts have been ongoing to investigate the prospects for expert computer systems that would match or excel human experts in providing assistance to users of retrieval systems. In this paper we contrast such efforts in terms of the models for retrieval and assistance they subsume and in terms of the techniques for performing effective retrieval and for developing expert assistance systems. Further, we state and attempt to support three premises: (1) to provide a truly comprehensive expert retrieval assistant requires a very extensive knowledge-base development; (2) there are significant questions concerning retrieval models and assistance techniques which need to be resolved in developing such expert systems: and (3) although expert retrieval assistance development is difficult, it shows promise for deepening our understanding of the retrieval process from a basic scientific viewpoint as well as for improving search techniques themselves. In support of these premises we discuss some of our recent experiences in the development of our CONIT experimental retrieval assistance system.enExpert systemsretrieval assistancesearch modelssearch strategyArticle