http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Agents recently have gained enormous popularity both in
computer science research and in the software industry.
Although the research projects addressing agency issues are
legion, a precise and generally accepted definition of agent
has yet to emerge. Based on an extensive survey of the
field, this dissertation presents a taxonomy of agents that
provides a high-level perspective of the existing views on
agency and their inter-relationships. The three classes of
agents on the first level of this taxonomy, each
corresponding to a major view, are programmer agents, network
agents and user agents. The motivations, characteristics,
applications and underlying theories for each class are
discussed. The class of user agents, which constitutes the
main theme of the dissertation, is further elaborated. User
agent subclasses and a framework for characterization of
commonly used techniques employed in user agent
implementation are presented. Agents that perform tasks on
behalf of the user have great potential for assisting users
in coping with large, complex, and dynamic information spaces
such as digital libraries. This dissertation also presents
AGS, an open architecture designed to provide agent services
to participants of digital libraries. In AGS, specific user
agent functionality is defined collaboratively by librarians,
who are experts in the organization of digital library
resources, and subscribed end users (or digital library
patrons), who determine what library resources are of
interest. Users delegate tasks to, visualize, and control
agents in multiple libraries via a uniform interface. The
design of AGS strongly fosters agent control by the user,
provides extensible agent functionality, and utilizes readily
available technologies in the construction of an environment
that actively cooperates with the user in taking advantage of
information resources. AGS enhances current views on
services to be enabled by digital libraries and offers a much
needed testbed for the investigation of issues in the
development, deployment and use of agents as the basis for a
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc.
Includes bibliographical references: pages 98-111.