Efficient Session Retrieval Using Topical Index Shards

Gijs Hendriksen, Djoerd Hiemstra, Arjen P. de Vries

Abstract: Retrieval is often considered one query at a time. However, in practice, queries regularly come in the context of sessions with coherent topics. By dividing a collection into topical index shards and matching the topical context of a session with the right shards, we may reduce the amount of resources required for answering each query. We consider two alternatives: (1) starting with exhaustive search and pruning unnecessary shards after each session turn, and (2) applying a resource selection algorithm to pre-select shards at the start of the session.

External IDs:dblp:conf/ecir/HendriksenHV25