Data base system which maintains project query list, desktop list and status of multiple ongoing research projects

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for performing plural research projects with respect to information contained in a reference library of books, said apparatus comprising, in combination;

display means;

input means for receiving inputs from a user;

readable database storage means for storing the test content of said reference library of books;

readable and writable storage means for storing library information concerning at least selected books in said reference library, and for further storing project state information for each given one of said research projects, said project state information specifying, combination;

the names of the books selected from said library for use in connection with said given project,

the identification of the particular book currently selected for review in connection with said given project, and

the location within said particular book of the specific text passage most recently displayed on said display means in connection with said given project; and

processing means coupled to said readable book storage means, said readable and writable storage means, said display means, and said input means, said processing means comprising, in combination

means responsive to an input from the user indicating resumption of work on a given project for automatically causing the display means to display a visual representation of at least a portion of said project state information, including the names of said books previously selected for use in connection with said given project,

means responsive to an input from the input means requesting display of a visual representation of said particular book currently under review for causing said display means to display a visual representation of a specific text passage,

means responsive to a current book selection input from the user for altering the project state information for said given project to identify a newly selected book as the particular book currently under review,

means responsive to a select from the library input from the user which specifies an additional book in said reference library for transferring information concerning said additional book from said stored library information to said stored project state information for said given project.

2. The research apparatus set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

the processor means responds to a display library information input received on the input means by causing the display means to display a visual representation of a portion of the library information, the select from library input selects library information from the displayed portion, and the processor means further responds to the select from library input by causing the display means to display the visual representation of the given project's project state.

3. The research apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

the processing means further responds to an input from the input means specifying a new book as the current book by first determining whether there is desk top information for the new book in the project state and if there is, making the new book the current book and if there is not, determining whether there is library information for the new book and if there is, providing library information for the new book to the desk top information and thereupon making the new book the current book.

4. The research apparatus set forth in claim 3 and wherein:

the input specifying a new book further specifies a location in the book; and

the processor means further causes the display means to display a portion of the new book containing the specified location.

5. The research apparatus set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

certain of the stored books contain one or more references to information located elsewhere in the stored book or in other stored books;

each reference includes one or more location specifiers specifying a stored book containing the information and the location therein of the information; and

when the processor means is causing the display means to displaying a portion of the text of one of the certain stored books and an input from the input means specifies that the research apparatus is to go to a selected reference, the processor means determines whether a location specifier belonging to the selected reference specifies one of the books for which there is desk top information in the project state, and if it does, makes that book the current book, and if it does not, determines whether one of the location specifiers specifies one of the books for which there is library information, and if it does, providing library information for that book to the desk top information and thereupon making that book the current book, and after having thus established the current book, causing the display means to display a portion of the text of the current book containing the location indicated in the location specifier specifying the current book.

6. The research apparatus set forth in claim 5 and wherein:

the non volatile storage means includes local storage means which is directly coupled to the processing means and which contains local stored books and remote storage means which is coupled to the processing means via communications means and which contains remote stored books;

when a remote stored book is the current book, the processing means automatically accesses the current book via the communications means; and

when there is more than one location specifier in the reference, the processing means employs any location specifier specifying a remote book only if none of the other location specifiers specifies a local book.

7. The research apparatus of claim 1 and wherein:

the desk top information for each of certain of the books further includes bookmark information for one or more bookmarks, the bookmark information including a bookmark name and a location in the book; and

the processor means responds to input from the input means specifying a bookmark name by making the stored book to which the bookmark belongs the current book and causing the display means to display a portion of the text of the stored book containing the location specified in the bookmark.

8. The research apparatus set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

the book storage means further includes search information permitting searching of certain of the stored books by means of a query;

the processor means responds to a query input from the input means and to a query execution input from the input means to execute the input query on the current book.

9. The research apparatus set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

the readable and writable storage means further stores project identification information for each of the research projects being performed on the research apparatus;

the display means further displays a visual representation of the project identification information; and

when the display means is displaying a visual representation of the project identification information and an input from the input mean selects one project from the project identification information, the processor means responds thereto by causing the display means to display the visual representation of the project state for the selected project.

10. The research apparatus set forth in claim 1 and wherein:

the project state further includes a project notebook in which information may be stored in an editable format;

the processor means responds to an input from the input means indicating that the user wishes to use the project notebook by causing the display means to display information from the project notebook and thereupon responds to an editing input from the input means by editing the information in the project notebook as specified by the editing input.

11. The research apparatus set forth in claim 10 and wherein:

when the display means is displaying a portion of the text of the current book, the processor means responds to an input from the input means indicating that the user wishes to copy a specified portion of the text being displayed from the current book to the project notebook by copying the specified portion from the current book to the information in the project notebook and thereupon causing the display means to display information from the project notebook and responding to an editing input from the input means by editing the information as specified by the editing input.

12. The research apparatus as set forth in claim 11 and wherein:

the text of the stored books is stored in a format which is editable when copied to readable and writable storage means.

13. Apparatus for performing research upon a reference collection of books, said apparatus comprising, in combination,

display means;

input means for receiving inputs from a user;

readable book storage means for storing;

a) the text of each book in said reference collection, and

b) searchable information relating to at least a subset of books in said reference collection, said searchable information enabling the test within those books within said subset which match a query to be more rapidly identified;

readable and writable storage means for storing project state information for each of plural research projects performed on said apparatus, the project state for a given project including:

a) an indicator of a current location in the specific book most recently reviewed in connection with said given projects, and

b) a list of the queries previously used in connection with said given project of the named stored books which may be searched by means of a query and have been so search in the project includes the last query used to search the book; and

processor means coupled to said display means, said input means, said readable book storage means, and said readable and writable storage means, said processor means comprising, in combination,

a) means responsive to a first input from the user for causing said display device to display a list of said research projects,

b) means responsive to a second input from the user for selecting a specific one of said projects displayed as the current project,

c) means responsive to a third input from the user for displaying the list of queries previously used in connection with said selected current project,

d) means responsive to a fourth input from the user for selecting a specific query from said displayed list, and

e) means responsive to a fifth input from the user for executing the specific query selected from the display list

whereby queries previously composed in connection with a project can be readily re-executed to return said research apparatus to a desired prior state.

14. Apparatus as set forth in claim 13 wherein said processor means further includes means responsive to editing inputs from the user for modifying said specific query prior its execution whereby the user interactively improve a prior query based on the results obtained by the execution of said prior query.

15. The research apparatus set forth in claim 13 and wherein:

the display means displays the queries executed in the project in chronological order.

16. The research apparatus set forth in claim 13 and wherein:

a book includes one or more documents;

the query state further specifies for each query the name of the book upon which the query was run and the number of documents which satisfy the query; and

the visual representation of each query displayed in the portion includes the name of the book and the number of documents which satisfy the query.

17. Apparatus for performing research upon a reference collection of books, said apparatus comprising, in combination,

display means;

input means for receiving inputs from a user;

readable book storage means for storing:

a) the text of each book in said reference collection,

b) searchable information relating to at least a subset of books in said reference collection, said searchable information enabling the text in those books within said subset which match a query to be more rapidly identified; and

c) a set of predefined queries for searing said subset of books,

readable and writable storage means for storing project state information for each of plural research projects performed on said apparatus, the project state for a given project including:

a) a list of the queries previously used in connection with said given project, and

b) an identification of the last query executed in the course of said given project; and

processor means coupled to said display means, said input means, said readable book storage means, and said readable and writable storage means, said processor means comprising, in combination,

a) means responsive to a first input from the user for causing said display device to display a list of said research projects,

b) means responsive to a second input from the user for selecting a specific one of said projects displayed as the current project,

c) means responsive to a third input from the user for displaying the list of queries previously used in connection with said selected current project,

d) means responsive to a fourth input from the user for selecting a specific query from said displayed list or form said set of predefined queries,

means responsive to editing inputs from the user for modifying the specific query selected, and

f) means responsive to a fifth input from the user for executing the query as modified,

whereby queries previously composed in connection with a project can be readily re-executed to return said research apparatus to a desired prior state, and said predefined queries previously executed may be executed in modified form to provide enhanced search results.

18. An computer information retrieval system comprising, in combination,

at least one keyboard for accepting inputs from a user, said inputs including:

a) project information designating each project to be performed on said information retrieval system,

b) queries expressed as search requests executable by said information retrieval system,

c) book selection requests, and

d) list display requests,

means for visually displaying data to the user specified by said list display requests,

readable reference database storage means for storing:

a) plural books, each of said books comprising plural documents, and each document comprising natural language text,

b) an ordered book list containing descriptive information on each of said plural books,

c) an ordered document list for each given one of said books containing bibliographic information on each of the documents contained within said given book, and

d) search information for at least a subset of said books which may be rapidly searched by a query to identify documents within said subset of books containing text which matches the criteria specified in said query,

readable and writable storage means responsive to said inputs for automatically storing and updating:

a) a project list containing descriptive information including said project information for each of plural projects previously or currently being performed on said system,

b) a desktop list for each given one of said projects which identifies each of the books selected for use in connection with said given project by book selection requests accepted from the user during the course of said given project,

c) a project query list for each of said projects which specifies the content of prior queries previously executed in the course of each said project, and

means for responsive to user request for selectively displaying the contents of any selected one of said lists whereby, for any one of said projects, the user may visually display the status of and the prior results achieved by any of said projects.

19. A system as set forth in claim 18 wherein said readable and writable storage means further includes means for automatically storing and updating a subset document list associated with each query on said project query list, said subset document list specifying the documents identified as a result of the execution of the associated query, said system further including means responsive to user request for displaying the contents of said subset document list for a query specified by the user from said project query list.

20. A system as set forth in claim 19 including means responsive to user request for displaying the text of a document selected by the user from the displayed contents of a subset document list.

21. A system as set forth in claim 19 further including means for selectively displaying the contents a subset document list in chronological order based on the date of the document or alternatively in order by page number based on the documents' position within the book relative to other documents in the same book.

22. A system as set forth in claim 18 wherein said readable and writable storage means further includes means for automatically storing and updating bookmark information for at least selected ones of said books, and wherein said system includes means for displaying the text specified by said bookmark information upon the user's request.

23. A system as set forth in claim 18 including means for automatically storing information identifying text being displayed in a sequence of go back state instances, and means responsive to user request for retrieving selectively retrieving said go-back indications to reistate the display in a previous state.

24. The research apparatus set forth in claim 23 and wherein:

the instances of the go back state form a stack;

when the processing means saves the instance of display state, the processing means pushes the instance onto the stack; and

when the processing means responds to the input from the input means specifying resumption of the display, the processing means pops the top instance from the stack and employs the top instance to resume the display specified therein.

25. Apparatus for performing plural research projects each involving the performance of searches for specified information in a reference library of books composed of natural language text, said apparatus comprising, in combination,

a computer system including a keyboard for accepting input information from a user, means for visually displaying output information to the user, optical drive disk drive means for reading information stored on interchangeable optical disks, and a magnetic disk drive for reading information from and writing information to a writable disk,

a collection of optical disk volumes for storing said library of books, each given one of said disk volumes storing book files and an install file, said install file including a descriptive identification of said given disk volume and a description of each book stored on said given disk volume,

means for transferring the information contained in the install file of available ones of said interchangeable disks to a library list stored on said writable disk,

means for accepting from the user a project description for each of said research projects and for transferring said project description to a project list on said writable disk,

means responsive to an input from the user for displaying information from said library list,

means responsive to an input from the user for selecting one or more books identified in said library list for use in connection with a selected one of said research projects and for transferring the information concerning the selected books from said library list to a desk top list for said selected research project, the desk top lists for said plural research projects being recorded on said writable disk, and

query handling means responsive to input information from the user for formulating queries for specific text information and for executing said queries by searching for said specific text information in source books selected from the books specified on the desk top list for said selected one of said projects, said searching being accomplished by reading information from those optical disk volumes designated for said source books, said query handling means including means for displaying a mount request to the user whenever the next selected source book to be searched is recorded on a disk volume which is not mounted on said optical disk drive means.

26. The apparatus for performing plural research projects set forth in claim 25 further comprising, in combination, means for storing a query list for each of said research projects, said query list containing those queries formulated by the user in the course of that project, and further containing information relating to the results achieved by executing said queries.

27. The apparatus for performing plural research projects set forth in claim 25 wherein said books are subdivided into documents and wherein said book files recorded one each of said optical disk volumes include a documents list containing descriptive information for each of the documents recorded on that disk volume and wherein said apparatus further includes means for transferring information from said documents list to a project document list recorded on said writable disk for each of said research projects, said project document list containing descriptive information concerning those documents contained within selected books specified in said desk top list for the corresponding project.

28. The apparatus for performing plural research projects set forth in claim 27 further comprising, in combination,

means responsive to an input from said keyboard for displaying at least a portion of said project list,

means responsive to an input from said keyboard for selecting one of the projects displayed from said project list as the currently active project and for displaying information from the desk top list for said currently active project.

29. The apparatus for performing research set forth in claim 28 further including means responsive to an input from the keyboard for displaying information from the query list for said currently active project.

30. The apparatus for performing plural research projects set forth in claim 28 wherein said displayed information from said desk top list includes a displayed list of the books selected for use in connection with said currently active project and wherein said apparatus further includes means for selecting one of the books on said displayed list of books as the currently active book.

31. The apparatus for performing research set forth in claim 28 further including means responsive to an input from the keyboard for reading and displaying information from the project document list for said currently active project.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to computerized systems for accessing information and more particularly to computerized systems for performing research on a body of literature.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The development of random-access mass storage devices for use in computer systems was quickly followed by the development of data base systems which permitted the computer to quickly access information stored in the mass storage devices by means of keys identifying the records in which the information was stored. Query languages in such systems permitted users to specify a subset of the information contained in the data base by specifying one or more keys and operators on the keys. In response to such a specification, the data base system output all records which satisfied the specification. As the cost of mass storage and memory decreased and the power of processors increased, full text retrieval systems were developed in which the data base consisted of text and every word of the text could serve potentially as a key. The query languages in such systems permitted users to specify queries by means of the words in the text and operators which included not only the operators of older data base systems, but also operators specifying information such as the proximity to each other in the text of the words used in the query.

The first-full text retrieval systems were difficult and expensive to use, and were consequently employed principally by specialists such as reference librarians. Moreover, the cost of mass storage was still high enough that individual researchers could not afford enough mass storage to store large text data bases. The full-text retrieval systems thus generally featured large central data bases to which users could gain access by means of telephone lines. As expensive and difficult to use as they were, the first full-text retrieval systems proved so valuable that improved full-text retrieval systems were developed which were designed specifically for use by professionals such as doctors and lawyers rather than librarians.

An example of such a full-text retrieval system is the WESTLAW(.TM.) system, developed by West Publishing Company, St. Paul Minn. WESTLAW is an interactive full-text retrieval system for performing legal research on a large on-line data base of legal documents such as cases and statutes. Users of the system have terminals or personal computers which are connected by telephone to the on-line data base. The user performs research by inputting short commands and queries from his terminal to Westlaw. By means of commands, he specifies a part of the data base such as a reporter for cases decided by a given group of courts. Having done this, he composes a query to be run on the reporter. The system runs the query and makes a list of cases from the reporter which satisfy the query. The list is ordered by the number of times the query is satisfied in the case. The user may access the text of the cases by moving from one location at which the query term appears to the next or by selecting a case from the list and reading that case. Once the user is reading the text of a case, he may move forward or backward from one page to the next. By running a query, reading cases which satisfy the query, using what he learns to refine the query, and running the refined query, the user can define a subset of cases which are exactly "on point" for the legal question he is researching. The user can command WESTLAW to provide part or all of the text of particularly interesting cases, and WESTLAW will send the cases via the telephone line for print out at the user's printer.

While systems such as WESTLAW were successful, the need for telephone line-access to a central data base and the need to memorize commands limited their use. For example, WESTLAW was typically used by research paralegals in large law firms and not by lawyers themselves. These drawbacks were overcome by two developments: powerful personal computers became available at prices which any individual professional practitioner could afford, and CD-ROM optical disks enormously reduced the cost of read-only mass storage. The power of the personal computers permitted better user interfaces to the full text retrieval systems. The CD-ROM disks made text data bases cheaper than books. Every professional user could afford to acquire CD-ROM disks with the information necessary in his field, and the central data bases were now required only for information too recent to be published on a CD-ROM disk. CD-ROM based research systems for personal computers appeared which could be used in the same fashion as WESTLAW, and had such additional features as improved user interfaces employing menus or function keys, "following" a reference embedded in one text to its location in another, output from the optical disks to documents, spreadsheets, or "notepads", and commands permitting users to save the present "state" of a research project so that work could be continued at that point later on. Examples of such CD-ROM based research systems for personal computers include Silversmith, manufactured by Taunton Engineering, Inc., Billerica, Mass., and Research Retrieval and Data Base System, manufactured by TMS, Inc., Stillwater, Okla.

While the CD-ROM based research systems for personal computers overcome many of the cost and ease-of-use difficulties of the on-line research systems, problems remain. Among them are the following: Professional researchers typically do research on several projects at once; present research systems do not accommodate that mode of work. Professional researchers are also typically able to define useful subsets of all of the information in the data base before they begin researching; present systems do not permit him such a definition. Different kinds of research may be more convenient if the same information can be presented in different orders; present systems present the information in a single order. Present systems permit the user to save what he perceives as significant, but users often fail to save what turns out later to be important. Present systems further cannot tailor the manner in which an embedded cross-reference is followed to the user's environment and cannot associate other information which might be valuable to the user of a document with the document. Present systems further do not permit a user to both locate information and work on it within the research system. Moreover, even with the improvements resulting from the availability of personal computers and optical disks, the user interface of present research systems often makes the transition from book-oriented to electronic research more difficult than necessary. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved research system which solves these and other problems of present research systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The apparatus to be described performs research upon books. The apparatus includes non-volatile storage, a display, an input device, and a processor coupled to the non-volatile storage, the display, and the input device. The non-volatile storage includes readable storage for storing the books and readable and writable storage for storing project state for one or more research projects being performed on the research apparatus. The state for each project includes an indicator of a current book and an indicator of a location in the text of the current book. The display displays a visual representation of a portion of the text of a stored book. The input device receives inputs from a user of the research apparatus. The processor means responds to an input from the input device which indicates resumption of work on a given project and to an input from the input device which indicates the display of text on the display device by automatically displaying a visual representation of a portion of the text of the book specified by the current book indicator which contains the location specified by the location indicator.

In other aspects of the research apparatus, the process state further includes desk top information for each of the books currently being used in a project. Information from the desk top information for a book includes the book's title, the last location accessed in the book, the last query executed for the book, and the number of documents in the book which satisfied the query. The research apparatus displays this information on the display in response to an input from the input means. The display further indicates which of the books selected for the project is the current book. In response to another input from the input means, the user can select one of the books as the current book. Thereupon, the processing means causes the display to display a portion of the text of the new current book which includes the last location accessed.

The non-volatile storage may be either local storage which is directly accessible to the processor or remote storage which is accessible by means of a communications link. When a book in remote storage is selected by a project as the current book, the processor automatically accesses that book by means of the communication ink.

The research apparatus further includes library information for each book presently accessible to the research apparatus. A user working on a project may select a book to be used in his project by means of an input to which the processing means responds by using information from the library information for the book to make the desk top information for the book.

The book storage further includes an ordered document list for each stored book which specifies documents in the stored book. The processor responds to an input from the input means by displaying a portion of the document list for the current book. Moreover, when the processor is displaying a portion of the current book, the processor responds to inputs indicating movements in the current book which are relative to the current location but which are outside the document containing the current location by moving to the relative location as determined by the order of the documents in the document list. In some cases, the book storage includes specifiers for one or more alternate orders for the document list. The processor responds to a user input selecting one of the alternate orders by displaying the document list and moving in the book as specified by the alternate order.

The book storage for some books further contains search information for the book which can be used to run a query on the book. When a user inputs a query to the research apparatus, the processing means executes the query on the search information and makes a subset document list of documents which has the same order as the document list, but contains only those documents which satisfy the query. The subset document list may be displayed in the same manner as the document list and governs relative movement in the displayed text of the current book in the same fashion.

Whenever a query is executed for a project, the processor automatically adds the text of the executed query to the project state. In response to an input from the user, the processor causes the display to display the queries executed thus far. If the user selects one of the queries, the processor causes the display to display the selected query and edit the query in response to further user inputs. In response to another input, the processor executes the edited query. Additionally, the book storage may further include a published query list of queries for a book. The published query list is provided by the publisher of the book. The list may be displayed and a query selected therefrom and edited as just described for the queries belonging to project state.

Whenever the display is displaying text from a book and a user provides an input which does not specify a location in a book relative to the current location, the processor automatically pushes state needed to restore the display at the current location onto a stack in the project state. In response to another input, the processor pops the state on the top of the stack and uses the popped state to restore the display.

The project state further includes a notebook which contains information in an editable format. In response to an input, the processor displays the notebook, and by providing other inputs, the user can copy text from a book to the notebook and edit the contents of the notebook.

In conclusion, a book may contain a reference to information at another location in that book or another book. Each reference includes one or more location specifiers specifying a book and a location for the information in the book. When the processor is displaying the text of a book and an input specifies that references are to be displayed, the processor indicates in the display which text has references. In response to another input, the processor displays the referenced information. It does so by first determining whether any location specifier indicates that the information is located in the current book. If so, it displays that location in the current book. If not, it determines whether any location specifier indicates that the information is located in a book for which there is desk top information. If it is, the processor makes that book the current book and displays the location. If not, the processor determines whether any location specifier specifies that the information is located in a book for which there is library information. If there is, the processor makes desk top information for the book, makes the book the current book, and displays the location. Moreover, if the processor has a choice between a location specifier specifying a local book and one specifying a remote book, the processor makes the local book the current book and displays the text of that book.

It is thus an object of the invention to provide an improved research apparatus.

It is another object of the invention to provide research apparatus in which research may be easily performed for different projects.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide research apparatus which automatically maintains certain state for each project.

It is another object of the present invention to provide research apparatus which permits a user to perform research on both local and remote books.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide research apparatus permitting viewing of documents in different orders.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art after referring to the detailed description of a preferred embodiment and the drawing, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an overview of the hardware of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a state diagram which is a functional overview of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows the function and navigation keys in the present invention;

FIG. 4 is the command bar and pull-down menu which appears in response to the MENU key;

FIG. 5 shows screens for the entry state;

FIG. 6 shows screens for the utility state;

FIG. 7 shows screens for the utility state;

FIG. 8 shows substates of the list managers state;

FIG. 9 shows screens for the project list manager state;

FIG. 10 shows screens for the