Describes an empirical study that was conducted to examine the performance of expert search intermediaries from Chemical Abstracts Service. Highlights include subject-independent and subject-dependent expertise; a model of the use of subject-specific knowledge; and implications for computerized intermediary systems and for training human…

Describes a study that was conducted to explore the potential of text analysis as a tool in full-text search and design improvement. A review of pertinent literature is included, and a trial analysis performed in the domain of family history literature is described. (Contains 49 references.) (LRW)

Reviews recent research into the use of hierarchic agglomerative clustering methods for document retrieval. The topics discussed include the calculation of interdocument similarities, algorithms used to implement clustering methods on large databases, validity testing of document hierarchies, appropriate search strategies, and other applications…

Describes a study that tested the effectiveness of a thesaurus as a search-aid in free text searching of a Finnish full text database. Linguistic and conceptual approaches are discussed; five search modes are explained; recall and precision are examined; and the use of proximity operators is discussed. (Contains 29 references.) (LRW)

Reviews methods to improve online catalogs for subject searching and describes the design of an expert system front-end to improve subject access in online public access catalogs that focuses on search strategies. Implementation of a prototype system at the National University of Singapore is described, and reformulation strategies are discussed.…

Discusses the inability of the standard Boolean logic model of information retrieval to deal effectively with the inherent fallibility of retrieval decisions. Recent advances in information retrieval research are reviewed, and their practical potential for overcoming the deficiencies of the Boolean model is examined. (45 references) (Author/CLB)

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…

Review of office filing facility filing and retrieval mechanisms for unstructured and mixed media information focuses on free text methods. Also discussed are the state of the art in handling voice and image data, problems with searching text surrogates to implement free text content retrieval, and work of Project Minstrel. (Author/MBR)

Reports information retrieval experiments comparing the performance of a probabilistic retrieval model that incorporates interdocument links with the simpler spreading activation strategy. Results indicated that the overall improvement obtained by including hypertext links in the retrieval model was low. (30 references) (EA)

Describes SHRIF, a System for Heuristic Retrieval of Information and Facts, and the medical knowledge base that was used in its development. Highlights include design decisions; the user-machine interface, including the language processor; and the organization of the knowledge base in an artificial intelligence (AI) project like this one. (57…

Discusses approaches to the integration of query-based information retrieval and browsing in a hypertext network. A prototype system developed to evaluate the proposed approach in terms of retrieval effectiveness and search efficiency is presented, and design and implementation issues concerning the prototype are considered. (30 references) (EA)

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…

Summarizes the literature on users studies from the perspective that variation in type of search may be considered central to providing a rational explanation and justification of the variations in resource allocation in different types of libraries. (CWM)

Discusses formulation of value function based on research from modelling, value assessment, human information seeking behavior, and human decision making. The proposed function is incorporated into computer-based fiction retrieval system and evaluated based on ability of individual's value function to discriminate among novels selected, rejected,…

This overview of the research process for the novice information retrieval (IR) researcher provides guidance on selecting a research question, choosing the type of test, defining variables, developing or using databases, finding and processing queries, assigning treatments to experimental units, collecting and analyzing the data, and presenting…