Reviews the literature that examines new capabilities and new problems associated with online catalogs, online searching of bibliographic databases, indexing, full text retrieval, and expert systems. The need for research that focuses on individual needs and that adopts an integrated approach which views indexing and retrieval as interrelated…

Examines the knowledge base of an intermediary expert system that provides advice about search term selection. Topics include a proposal for an integrated approach, including an option focusing on terminological attributes based on knowledge acquired from professional searchers; and the content of the knowledge base and the research needed to…

Describes a study of professional searchers that investigated their decisions about using search terms. The use of descriptors from a controlled vocabulary versus the use of textwords for free-text searching is examined, searching styles and differences in subject areas are discussed, and the quality of thesauri and indexing is considered. (six…