Using Hermes-F: experiences with a framework for developing information retrieval applications

Hermes-F is a framework that enables the development of applications that perform information retrieval (IR) tasks. Its central component is an extensible server that provides access to a variety of IR models, query transformations and digital collections. We have successfully instantiated our proposed framework by implementing a fully operational IR server that is accessed from various digital library applications. We describe the Hermes-F environment and focus on our results of using and extending the available IR models for diverse collections.