When searching for scholarly documents, researchers often stick with the same familiar handful of databases. Yet, just beyond these limited horizons lie dozens of alternatives with which they could search more effectively, whether for quick lookups or thorough searches in systematic reviews or meta-analyses. Searchsmart.org is a free website that…

Bradford's Law has been the subject of much discussion and analysis in library and information science since its formulation in the 1930s and remains frequently debated to this day. It has been applied to various practices within the discipline, especially with regard to collection development, but its relevance to researchers and the potential it…

Teaching computer programming to novices is a difficult task due to the complex nature of the subject, as negative stereotypes are associated with programming and because introductory programming courses often fail to encourage student understanding. This Protocol outlines the plan that is to be followed in order to investigate the effectiveness…

Designed to measure end-users' efficacy in online searching based on their presearch experience with printed literature retrieval systems for the search topic, this experiment examined differences between manual searches preceding electronic searches and vice versa. The results were not statistically significant due to the small sample size.…

Presents a general mathematical framework for information retrieval, in which query evaluation is seen as a mapping from the free term algebra built by query descriptors and weights to the semantic algebra of evaluation value. Competing mathematical models that try to describe how retrieval systems behave are reviewed. (Author/MBR)

Discussion of problems with fuzzy subsets in document retrieval highlights attempts to invent a system of weighted fuzzy queries in which weights correspond to relative importance of each term in query as whole, and use of Kantor's Logic for Retrieval as an alternative to Boolean queries. Six references are cited. (EJS)

Describes GRANT, an expert system for finding sources of funding given research proposals. The architecture of GRANT and the implementation of constrained spreading activation (a modified search algorithm based on semantic memory) are described, and recall and precision rates are analyzed. (Author/LRW)

Identifies characteristics of the experienced online searcher and discusses the results of three searches carried out by a variety of searchers in widely differing subject fields--presence of arsenic in coal, problems of working alone in laboratory or work area, and spectral sensitivity of the insect eye. (8 references) (EJS)

Discusses the overlap of research in artificial intelligence and information retrieval, focusing on the papers included in this special issue of Information Processing and Management. Highlights include the emphasis on evaluation and testing in prior research and use of manual and automatic indexing, expert systems, knowledge representation, and…

Based on systematic observations of five experienced online searchers, this model compares two searching styles: operationalist, which aims at optimal strategies to achieve precise retrieval and uses a large range of system capabilities, and conceptualist, which analyzes the request by seeking to fit it into a faceted structure. (13 references)…

The Hepatitis Knowledge Base (text of prototype information system) was used for modifying and testing "A Navigator of Natural Language Organized (Textual) Data" (ANNOD), a retrieval system which combines probabilistic, linguistic, and empirical means to rank individual paragraphs of full text for similarity to natural language queries…

Investigates techniques for automatic coding of English language strings which involve titles drawn from bibliographic files, but do not require prior knowledge of source. Coding methods (basic, maximum entropy principle), results of test using 6,260 titles from British National Bibliography, and variations in code element ordering are…

Discusses characteristics of typical online public access catalogs (OPACs) and examines patron use via printouts of transaction logs for three separate systems. Desirable features of OPACs (mnemonic search commands, boolean operators, forgiveness or automatic truncation, browsing a subject heading index, suggestive prompts) and need for…

Discusses indeterminancy of selection of terms by indexers and by inquirers as major factors influencing subject access to documents in document retrieval systems. Five types of interactions between these two indeterminancies are discussed, and a change in traditional method of subject searching is suggested to reduce effect of inter-indexer…

Describes a document retrieval system that provides for user interaction at several search stages to acquire a detailed specification of the user's information need. The use of domain knowledge to refine the query and a browsing mechanism are described in detail, and further research questions are identified. (CLB)