This article presents the results of a pilot study of the research information needs, behaviour and source preferences of academic researchers at a regional university engaged in a public policy research project. In-depth interviews with three public policy oriented academic researchers undertaking interdisciplinary research projects at Charles…

The efficacy of using the BIOSIS Previews database as an online information retrieval tool in clinical psychology was investigated in a study conducted at the University of West Florida. Recognizing the importance of multi-database searching strategies when seeking comprehensive results, this study compared the citation output of this…

Law resources are outlined in three categories: primary or mandatory sources of authority, secondary or persuasive authority, and finding tools used to locate relevant primary and secondary sources. Sources such as citators, legal bibliographies, computer assisted legal research systems (LEXIS, WESTLAW, etc.), and law and education sources are…

In order to understand how the database software or online database functioned in the overall curricula, the use of database management (DBMs) systems was studied at eight elementary and middle schools through classroom observation and interviews with teachers and administrators, librarians, and students. Three overall areas were addressed:…

Electronic databases have become important resources for researchers in many disciplines. While there is no single database designed to cover the field of communications, there are several databases which include material that is of interest to investigators in the field. An experiment was performed to determine which databases would be most…

Designed to determine to what extent the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) products and services are utilized by certified school personnel, this study found that, on the average, 25.1% of the teachers, librarians, counselors, and administrators in three educational service regions in west central Illinois have used Resources in…

The situational and personal factors affecting the usage of a computer based information service by health care professionals are described. Of 166 health care professionals who were identified as potential users of MEDLINE at the University of Connecticut, 126 carried out one or more online searches. Pre-use and post-use questionnaires were…

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) software research and development project described explores information seeking behavior of end-user energy experts and develops software offering tutorials on front-end use of DOE/RECON databases and active help in performing online searches. Software development is described and results of prototype testing…

Presents results of five experiments on human information-seeking behavior in different online information-seeking environments which studied search strategies and assessed information value in realistic search environments. A conceptual model of how humans value information is presented. Empirical and modeling results are considered for…

The basics of online searching for bibliographic citations are presented through use of the "Economic Literature Index" (ELI), which is available as File 139 on Dialog Information Services. This article focuses on the choice of media for bibliographic searches, search strategies, and the selection of alternative databases, such as…

This study of microcomputer use to access an online encyclopedia revealed attitudes of eighth-graders towards computer technology and videotex. Electronic searching is compared to searching with traditional library print materials for a science course, the role of computer printouts is discussed, and research methods including observation and…