Discusses the effects of microcomputers on online services and products from the perspectives of the major participants in the online industry--database creators and providers; service or network operators; libraries and information brokers; and end users. Ongoing developments and trends affecting participant groups are reviewed. Three references…

Discusses the potential of recent work in artificial intelligence, especially expert systems, for the development of more effective information retrieval systems. Highlights include the role of an expert bibliographic retrieval system and a prototype expert retrieval system, PROBIB-2, that uses MicroProlog to provide deductive reasoning…

A project at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources has resulted in the extension of the ERIC database to microcomputer. Small subject-related files for current-awareness purposes are downloaded from the ERIC tapes and are made available for searching with Apple II Plus microcomputers. Since the target audience for this system is…

Discusses technological developments causing changes in personal information systems: increase in commercial support services; proliferation of microcomputers; capability to download from secondary services into private files; and developing desire to utilize functions such as electronic mail and automated office functions. Appendices list 21…

Describes design of three linked databases on gardening which are intended for use by home computer owners. Principles of development of these programs--which are neither expert systems nor databases in the usual sense--are outlined, and the self-education process in which the developers found themselves engaged is discussed. (MBR)

Describes three major features of treatment of paradigmatic thesaural information in microcomputer-based concept network management system: use of simple graphic displays of thesaural or paradigmatic information (linktypes); use of thesaural information to generate indirect entries; capability of customizing index displays, including thesaural…

This guide discusses four types of microcomputer-based communication programs that could prove useful to evaluators: (1) the direct communication of information generated by one computer to another computer; (2) using the microcomputer as a terminal to a mainframe computer to input, direct the analysis of, and/or output data using a statistical…

Describes resource sharing system in Illinois academic libraries that allows patrons to borrow materials from other libraries through user-friendly interlibrary loan commands on IBM personal computer terminals. Highlights include experiences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IBM personal computers as terminals, and increase in…

This bibliometric investigation of literature on microcomputers in library and information services focuses on the years 1973-1986. Five printed reference tools and three online databases were searched to examine the number of publications, types of documents, contributing languages and countries, and the productivity of individual authors.…

Designed to assist educational researchers in utilizing microcomputers, this paper presents information on four types of computer software: writing tools for educators, statistical software designed to perform analyses of small and moderately large data sets, project management tools, and general education/research oriented information services…

This analysis of trends in the Canadian library systems marketplace in 1986, compares installations of large integrated systems and microcomputer based systems by relative market share, and number of installations by type of library. Canadian vendors' sales in international markets are also analyzed, and a director of vendors provided. (Author/CLB)

Describes a study which investigated plans of Association of Research Libraries members in New England for total automated library systems, whether compatibility of microcomputers with existing or proposed equipment is a factor in microcomputer selection, plans for microcomputer use, and how appropriate microcomputer tasks are identified and…

This pilot study on the subject access problems of patrons of small to medium size libraries was designed to measure the extent to which users' vocabularies matched the search vocabulary of bibliographic records in the card catalog, and to enhance subject access by develooping a microcomputer system which integrated Library of Congress Subject…

The directory lists and describes 48 resources organized by: projects using microcomputers to instruct young exceptional children, other early childhood special education microcomputer projects, technical assistance projects, software evaluation projects, publications and projects on adapted toys and educational devices, online electronic…

Presents a system model for transmission of input data that is coming from terminals of users in a limited user resource-sharing environment. Performance of a mini/microcomputer receiving mixture of picture-phone terminal data is analyzed with constant service times, synchronous transmission, and single-server interruptions through first-order…