From: perlman@moose.cis.ohio-state.edu (Gary Perlman)
Subject: The HCI Bibliography
Organization: Computer & Info Sci  Ohio State Univ  Columbus, OH 43210
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 04:40:27 GMT

                   - Bibliotheca magnetica patens omnibus -
                      - Hominis-ordinatorisque societas -

                         The HCI Bibliography Project

                                 Gary Perlman
                Department of Computer and Information Science
                           The Ohio State University
                          Columbus, OH 43210-1277 USA

[1] Goals and Philosophy of the HCI Bibliography

The HCI Bibliography is a free-access online extended bibliography
on Human-Computer Interaction.  The basic goal of the project is to
put an electronic bibliography for most of HCI on the screens of all
researchers, developers, educators and students in the field through
anonymous ftp access, mail servers, and Mac and DOS floppy disks.
Through the efforts of volunteers, the bibliography has grown to
a valuable and lasting resource of thousands of entries.

Table 0: Approximate Statistics on HCI Bibliography
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * Validated Entries:                6300 records
 * Validated Modules:                 160 files
 * Space for Validated Entries:       5.6 Meg
 * Unvalidated Entries:              1000 records
 * Unvalidated Modules:                16 files
 * Space for Unvalidated Entries:     1.3 Meg
 * Total Space for Bibliography:      7.0 Meg
 * Total Space for Compressed Data:   2.0 Meg (2 HD or 5 7-800K disks)
 * Volunteers                         100 kind souls
 * Countries of Volunteers:            13 nations
 * Registered Users/Sites:            300 beneficiaries
 * Countries of Registered Users:      23 nations
(Validated entries have been completely checked, but unvalidated entries
have been released before their abstracts have been checked to allow more
timely access to data.)

The primary reason for compiling the HCI Bibliography is to
improve the accessibility of information used as a resource for
research, development, and education.  Electronic access is a major
step in that direction because it allows keywords searching in
selected fields of records.  Expanded versions of records (i.e.,
with abstracts and tables of contents) provide auxiliary targets for
search, and additional information to help a user decide if the
original source (e.g., journal, book, proceedings) should be
approached.  Although some abstracted information is available
from some commercial sources, the expense of access and the low
quality of user interfaces make them unattractive to many users,
particularly students.  One unfortunate result is the duplication
of effort by people to compile their own electronic bibliographies. 
The HCI Bibliography addresses those issues by being
non-commercial, providing free-access to its information bases,
and by performing basic research to produce better tools for
accessing extended bibliographic information. 

[2] Coverage -- Current and Planned

The HCI Bibliography includes entries with title, author, date,
publication, pages, with keywords and abstracts when available,
and tables of contents of articles in some cases.  Entries are
separated into modules with all the articles in large edited
books, conference proceedings, and journal volumes.  To be
manageable, some very large modules are stored in more than one
file so that any one file does not exceed 100,000 characters. 
For example, the 177 entries from the IFIP INTERACT'90 conference
takes up almost 160 thousand characters, which could be truncated
by some mail programs.  It is split into five files.

The coverage of the HCI Bibliography is noted in Tables 1-3.
The publishers of the material, who have granted the project permission
to distribute abstracted entries freely, are also noted.
Table 1 lists the major modules on books and edited volumes.
Table 2 lists the conferences currently covered in the database.
We plan to continue the areas listed, and to cover some material
from the HFS and SIGGRAPH proceedings (i.e., all basic information,
but only abstracts for HCI-related entries).
Table 3 lists the journal volumes currently covered in the database.

For all journals listed we have completed the historical
coverage of the journal's publications.
We expect to cover some material from the HF Journal, Communications
of the ACM, IEEE Computer and Software, and Transactions on Systems,
Man and Cybernetics, Cognitive Science, and Ergonomics.
Only HCI-related entries from some journals are included.
Other journals may be added later depending on resources and demand.
Materials are added to the bibliography as they are received by the project,
except for journal entries, which are gathered when volumes are complete.

Table 1: Books in the HCI Bibliography
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baecker & Buxton's "Readings in HCI" (1987)
Helander's         "Handbook of HCI", (1988) Elsevier/North-Holland
Salvendy's         "Handbook of Human Factors", (1987) Wiley
modules of books, reports, videos, etc.

Table 2: Conference Proceedings in the HCI Bibliography
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BCS-HCI	People and Computers (1985-1992), Cambridge
CHI	Human Factors in Computing Systems (1982-92), ACM
CQL	Computers and the Quality of Life (1990), ACM
CSCW	Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (1988,90), ACM
DPS	Document Processing Systems (1988), ACM
ECHT	European Conference on Hypertext (1990), Cambridge, ACM
EP	Electronic Publishing (1990), Cambridge
ESP	Empirical Studies of Programmers (1986, 87, 91), Ablex
HFS	Human Factors Society Annual Meeting (1987-91), HFS
HYPER	Hypertext Conference (1987, 89, 91), ACM
HYPUK	Hypertext I and II (1988, 89), Intellect
INTACT	INTERACT HCI Conference (1984, 87, 90), Elsevier/North-Holland
IR	Information Retrieval (1986-92), ACM
OCS	Organizational Computing Systems (1991), ACM
OIS	Office Automation/Information Systems (1982, 84, 86, 88, 90), ACM
UIST	User Interface Software and Technology (1988-91), ACM

Table 3: Journal Volumes in the HCI Bibliography
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIT	Behaviour and Information Technology (1982-1991), Taylor & Francis
HCI	Human-Computer Interaction (1985-91), Erlbaum
IJHCI	Intl. Jl. of Human-Computer Interaction (1989-91), Ablex
IJMMS	Intl. Jl. of Man-Machine Studies (1969-92), Academic Press
IWC	Interacting with Computers (1989-91), Butterworth-Heinemann
JOC	Jl. of Organizational Computing (1991), Ablex
SIGCHI	Bulletin (1988-92), ACM
TOG	Transactions on Graphics (1986-92), ACM
TOIS	Transactions on (Office) Information Systems (1982-92), ACM

[3] Format of the Database

The database consists of over 100 files, each containing entries
for a conference proceedings or a journal volume or a large book.
The records are in plain text with fields marked up using the UNIX refer
language, chosen because it is easy to parse.  The most important
fields are shown in Table 4.  An example record, one from
a previous publication on the project, is shown in Table 5.
The abstract (%X) and the table of contents (%Y) have been truncated
to save space here.  Some special formatting in the entries has
been maintained in the text by a simple convention for mathematical
notation and for representing special symbols; bold, italic, underline,
and diacriticals on author names have not been preserved.

Table 4: Descriptions of Fields in Refer Format Records
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
%*	the copyright field
%A	author name
%B	book name
%C	city of publication
%D	date of publication
%E	editor
%F	(unused)
%G	government number (e.g., ISBN, LC)
%H	(unused)
%I	issuer (publisher)
%J	journal name
%K	keywords
%L	(unused)
%M	(reserved for internal use)
%N	issue number
%O	other information
%P	pages
%Q	corporate author
%R	report name
%S	section name or series number
%T	article title
%U	user annotation
%V	volume number
%W	(unused)
%X	abstract
%Y	table of contents
%Z	(reserved for later use for references)

Table 5: An Example HCI Bibliography Record
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
%T The HCI Bibliography Project
%A Gary Perlman
%D 1991
%J ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
%V 23
%N 3
%P 15-20
%X The HCI Bibliography project has just released its first
collections of a free-access online extended bibliography on
Human-Computer Interaction.  The basic goal of the project is to
put an online bibliography for most of HCI on the screens of all
researchers and developers in the field through anonymous ftp
access, mail servers, and Mac and DOS floppy disks.  Through the
efforts of volunteers, the bibliography has passed 1000 entries,
...
%K Human-computer interaction, Bibliographic information,
Research Aids, Distributed group work, Networks, Cooperative
Research, Information sharing, Hypertext, Information retrieval
%Y 
1. Introduction
	1.1 Goals of the HCI Bibliography Project
	1.2 Philosophy of the HCI Bibliography Project
	1.3 Coordination of Cooperation
2. Contents of the HCI Bibliography
	2.1 Structure of Records
	2.2 Current/Planned Coverage
	2.3 Planned Coverage
...

[4] Database Construction

The database has been constructed from a combination of contributed entries
and local data entry.  After we obtain a source, we run over 50 automated
checks to find typographical errors.  After this cleanup, we use human
proofreaders and duplicate entry for quality control.
We have been fortunate to have had close to 100 volunteers work on the project,
too many to list here, but whose names are in the README file in the database.

[5] Database Access

The HCI Bibliography is a database, not an online service.
We do not plan to set up a means of searching the files on our machines.
To use the bibliography, you must obtain a copy of the files
and use software tools of your own (e.g., refer, WAIS, gopher) on your system.
Although we have developed software tools to access the information,
supporting them for hundreds of users is beyond the scope of the project.

There are three ways to get a copy of the bibliography:
 (1) Anonymous ftp (file transfer protocol)
 (2) Email Service
 (3) Floppy Disk Exchange

Internet/Anonymous FTP Access: To access files in the HCI Bibliography,
internet users can use FTP (file-transfer-protocol) to copy files and programs
to their machines.  See the file named README for more information about the
contents of files and for information about how to contact publishers of the
works.  To log in to the archive machine, use the login name: "anonymous" and
provide your internet account name as your password.  The messages provided by
ftp are unbelievably cryptic; many users can not distinguish between positive
feedback and messages about unrecoverable errors, so ignore them and plod
along.  In the following example, where much of the output from ftp is left
out, the following conventions are used.

     "$" is your system's prompt
     text after "#" is a comment
     you type in text after the ":" and the ">"
     "ftp>" is the prompt from the file transfer program

File transfer rates will vary, so try something small first.
To minimize our overhead, we do not plan to offer compressed versions for
network access; compressed versions are only available for floppy disks.

$ mkdir mybib                   # make a directory where you will keep your copy
$ cd mybib                      # set transfer directory before ftp
$ ftp archive.cis.ohio-state.edu# to reach our archive; obscure text will follow
Name (...): anonymous           # user logs in with standard anon ftp name
Password: yourname@yoursite     # use your name and your site for identification
ftp> cd pub/hcibib              # go to HCI Bibliography directory
ftp> dir                        # to get a listing of what's there
ftp> get README                 # to retrieve a file named README
ftp> prompt                     # to toggle (turn off) interactive prompting
ftp> mget *                     # interactively retrieve all files
ftp> quit                       # to leave ftp when done

Electronic Mail Server: Access via an automatic mail server is in place.
To use this mail server, users send specially formatted messages to a
special mail alias that will automatically generate responses.  Send your
first request to hcibib@cis.ohio-state.edu.  The body of the message should be:
	Send: index
The colon after the word Send is required.  Please do not include a signature.
Other requests are of a similar form, with ``index'' replaced by other file
names in the index.  Standard UNIX/DOS wildcards can be used to request
many files at once.  For example:
	Send: IJMMS*
	Send: HFS*.bib
	Send: HCI* IJHCI* IWC* BIT*
Some people request files that they are not prepared to receive.
A request for everything (Send: *) will exceed many space quotas.

Floppy Disk: Users who do not have internet/ftp or electronic mail
access to the bibliography can request Macintosh or DOS floppy formats.
Transferring files and making disks is tedious work, so such requests may only
be filled once a month.  The requester will send us (1) a prepaid
self-addressed (international) mailer and (2) enough formatted Mac or DOS floppy
disks to hold the bibliography, see the Table 0 to see how many disks to send.
We will be able to accept any format of DOS diskettes except 360K.
This setup will allow us to provide the bibliography without charge,
while minimizing our own effort.

[6] Conclusions

The HCI Bibliography has hundreds of registered users,
each representing several users at their site.
Assuming that people who took the trouble to register are using the
information, the multiplicative leverage of the efforts have
made the project worthwhile.  It it important to note that
the major efforts of the past two years to cover back issues of
journals and proceedings is a one time investment of effort;
the annual effort to bring the database up to date will now be small,
and even if it lags for more than a year, the information that is
now in electronic form will be freely accessible forever.
We hope that this will have a positive impact on the quality of
work done in the field, particularly by newcomers, who will
find it easier to survey the work done over the past few decades.

The database is an interesting information space to explore,
and several researchers have developed systems or have applied existing
systems in new ways to access the information in the database.
At OSU, were are working on a variety of new ways of doing library
research by allowing dynamic views of records linked in a hypertext
network connected by reference/citation pointers and inclusion links.
The HCI Bibliography Project is an example of how electronic networks
can be used to build artifacts of use to many people for many purposes.
We hope that our policies and procedures manual can be used in
other fields to guide their development of shared information.

The HCI Bibliography Project is currently working with the HFS
about how to get access to bibliographic information on the
HF journal and the proceedings of the annual HFS meeting.
Our plan is to offer at least the material in the cumulative
indices in electronic form, ideally provided by the Society.

If you are interested in helping with the project, either by
contributing data, time to validate, or in some other way,
you can contact the project director.  Electronic mail is
preferred (and is required for most volunteer work).

	Professor Gary Perlman, Drone-in-Chief
	The HCI Bibliography Juggernaut
	Department of Computer and Information Science
	The Ohio State University
	Room 228 Bolz Hall
	2036 Neil Avenue Mall
	Columbus, OH 43210-1277 USA

	perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu
	+01-614-292-2566 Voice
	+01-614-292-9021 Fax

[7] Acknowledgements

The HCI Bibliography Project is supported in part by The Ohio
State University and by ACM SIGCHI (The Association for Computing Machinery
Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction).
The Project gratefully acknowledges the copyright permissions granted
by the publishers, and their donations of publications for data entry.
The project most gratefully acknowledges the effects of the volunteers.
Financial support (for student support) or equipment support (e.g., hard disk,
flatbed scanner) would be gratefully received and acknowledged.
-- 
Gary Perlman, Computer & Information Science, Ohio State University
228 Bolz Hall, 2036 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1277  USA
perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu   Voice: +01-614-292-2566   Fax: +01-614-292-9021
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors