Cross-language information retrieval and evaluation

The objective of the Cross-Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF) is to develop and maintain an infrastructure for the testing and evaluation of information retrieval systems operating on European languages, in both monolingual and cross-language contexts,and to create test-suites of reusable data that can be employed by system developers for benchmarking purposes. The first CLEF evaluation campaign started in early 2000 and ended with a workshop in Lisbon, Portugal, 22-23 September 2000. This volume constitutes the proceedings of the workshop and also provides a record of the results of the campaign. It consists of two parts and an appendix. The first part reflects the presentations and discussions on the topic of evaluation for crosslanguage information retrieval systems during the first day of the workshop, whereas the second contains papers from the individual participating groups reporting their experiments and analysing their results. The appendix presents the evaluation techniques and measures used to derive the results and provides the run statistics. The aim of this Introduction is to present the main issues discussed at the workshop and also to provide the reader with the necessary background to the experiments through a description of the tasks set for CLEF 2000. In conclusion, our plans for future CLEF campaigns are outlined.