Designed to minimize information overload in telecommunications systems, the formal model developed in this paper predicts the usefulness of a message based on the available message features, and may be used to rank messages by expected importance or economic worth. The assumptions of binary and two Poisson independent probabilistic distributions…

Designed to assist evaluators in selecting the appropriate software for the generation of various data collection instruments, this guide discusses such key program characteristics as text entry, item storage and manipulation, item retrieval, and printing. Some characteristics of a good instrument generation program are discussed; these include…

This review of the literature discusses theories of information with emphasis on the views of Dervin and Popper on subjectivity and objectivity as they relate to information use. Classification and indexing as applied in information retrieval systems and libraries are also discussed, and 78 references are provided. (LRW)

Describes experiments relating information to decision making. The experiments were developed to validate previously suggested conceptual model of information flow and its relation to decision making and to establish specific values for significant parameters involved. Background and summary of recent research and experimental design and research…

This report describes the use of a research-oriented databank on international treaties in undergraduate courses in international law. Following a discussion of the study of treaties, their magnitude, and the political significance of their magnitude, the use of treaties by lawyers and political scientists is contrasted with their value to…

Designed to evaluate the usefulness of the BIOSIS PREVIEWS database when searching the psychiatric literature, this study compared the effectiveness of this online database with the effectiveness of two other computerized databases, MEDLINE and PsycINFO (Psychological Abstracts), which psychiatric researchers and clinicians usually rely on when…

This disc version is the fifth edition of the "Ethnographic Bibliography of North America," the classic print source of anthropological literature on Native Americans from Human Relations Area Files, Inc. It contains nearly 60,000 citations. Using the files and some shortcomings are reviewed. (SLD)

The sixth volume of a 10-volume report, this document provides an analytic history of dissemination at the National Institute of Education, focusing on six dissemination-related programs supported by the Institute: Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), State Dissemination Capacity Building Program, Urban Sites/Documentation and…

This report assesses the impact of instruction in online bibliographic database searching on high school students' use of library materials and facilities in three Delaware secondary schools (one public, one parochial, and one private) during the spring of 1984. Most students involved in the analysis were given a brief explanation of online…

The Fourth International Research Forum in Information Science (IRFIS 4) focused on two themes: user-oriented research in information science and experimental and practical investigations of the mediation and use of information. An opening speech by Bjorn Tell reviewed information research policy in the United States, France, England, Japan, the…