Describes a study that compared the "Video Source Book,""Variety's Complete Home Video Directory," and OCLC in order to judge their comprehensiveness, currency, uniqueness, and redundancy in cataloging videos. The strengths and weaknesses of each source are discussed and suggestions for further research into the bibliographic…

Discussion of the effects of CD-ROM journal indexes on interlibrary loan departments focuses on a study conducted at Moravian College that analyzed interlibrary loan requests for journal articles indexed in PsycLIT. Results indicate that appropriate bibliographic instruction can prevent an increase in interlibrary loan requests. (11 references)…

Discusses the problems of compressing a large textual database for storage on CD-ROM. A text-compression algorithm is presented, new algorithms for compression of indices are described, and the ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language) database is used as an example. (14 references) (LRW)

Reports results of a comparison of the Academic Index on CD-ROM and four indexes on the OPAC (online public access catalog) at Brooklyn College (New York): General Science Index, Humanities Index, Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, and Social Science Index. Coverage of the "New York Times" was found to be important. (LRW)

Describes an examination of the effectiveness of retrieving and ranking records from citation indexes based on the number of references in common with an identified and relevant record. It is concluded that this retrieval method is potentially useful, especially in those searches backward and forward in time that are enabled by the design of…

Relates how one teacher used a C-ROM encyclopedia, a concordancer, and a word processor to make concordances suitable for lower-level language learners. These concordances helped overcome the unfamiliarity of 80-character KWIC lines and the difficulties of obscure vocabulary, and were useful in the teaching of grammar and lexis. (Author/VWL)

Introduces the multicharacter trie as an index structure that can improve the time needed for retrieving full-text materials stored on CD-ROMs. The advantages of this structure compared to other structures are described, and experimental results comparing it to the widely used B+ tree and other structures used for full-text retrieval are…

The relative effectiveness of the CD-ROM information retrieval system, InfoTrac II, and the manual "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature," was studied. Seventeen community college students were divided into two groups which researched the same questions either on CD-ROM or in the printed index. Results showed the "Readers'…

Describes a study conducted at Jacksonville State University (Alabama) that compared the ERIC print index, "Resources in Education" (RIE), to the ERIC index in CD-ROM format. Accuracy of results, time savings, and user satisfaction are discussed, and copies of the questionnaire and survey are appended. (Author/LRW)

Based on evaluations of 1,025 CD-ROM products, this article summarizes trends in (1) growth of commercially available CD-ROM titles; (2) types and subjects of products produced; (3) update options; (4) hardware systems CD-ROMs are designed to run on; (5) prices; and (6) multimedia products. Possible future developments that could revolutionize…

This 2-year project at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) was conducted to determine the feasibility of providing online periodical indexing to the journal holdings of the UTA libraries by demonstrating an extended use of the libraries' NOTIS Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) to provide better access to local resources. Three approaches…

Describes a study that asked college students to compare CD-ROM and print versions of ERIC, PsycLit, and the Business Periodicals Index. The findings indicate that students found the CD-ROM versions to be faster and easier to use. Search strategies employed by students and the extent to which they required assistance are also discussed. (four…

Describes a study conducted at Jacksonville State University (Alabama) that compared the ERIC print index with the ERIC index in CD-ROM format in the areas of accuracy, time savings, and user satisfaction. Results show greater satisfaction with CD-ROM. Copies of the questionnaire and survey used are appended. (Author/LRW)

This study investigated the use patterns of four CD-ROM systems--Newsbank Electronic Index, SilverPlatter's ERIC and PsycLIT, and Dissertation Abstracts Ondisc--and their print index counterparts in the University of Georgia (UGA) Main Library, which houses collections and provides library services for the humanities, the social sciences, and…

Describes two CD-ROM reference systems and the reactions of undergraduate students, faculty, and librarians to these systems. The discussion covers criteria that influenced users' reactions (e.g. ease of use, expertise in Boolean logic, database currency, and multidisciplinary characteristics of databases) and conclusions about appropriate systems…