Transparent information systems through gateways, front ends, intermediaries, and interfaces

This article provides an overview of the design requirements for transparent information retrieval. The term “transparent information retrieval” implies that the user sees through the complexity of the sequence of retrieval activities. In a transparent system the user would supply to a retrieval system a query or problem for which the answer resides in stored information/data, he would then retrieve the information/data that contains the answer—or upon which the answer is based—without seeing the complexity of the intervening transactions that take place between the posing of the query and the provision of the final results. While the likelihood of developing a total transparent system for world knowledge is extremely remote, many partial solutions can be, and are being, developed under the names of front ends, interfaces, intermediaries, and gateways. These are aids that partially meet the need for transparent systems. This article discusses the need for transparent information retrieval systems and the history of research that has been directed toward meeting the need. As the term information is used in this paper it refers to information in all forms—numeric data, pictorial information, as well as textual or word‐oriented information. A taxonomy of the functions involved in information retrieval is provided, together with an indication of what needs to be automated and how it can be, has been, or is being done. The functions are classified into four major groups—automated converters, routers, selectors, and evaluators/analyzers. Also discussed are issues that have an impact on the development and implementation of automated retrieval functions: transparency aids, centralization vs. decentralization, privacy and need to know, the position of players in the database use chain and the implications for control, and vertical and horizontal gateways. The final section treats new technologies, such as CD‐ROM, and the possible effect they may have on transparency aids such as gateways. © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.