Examines data on circulation and in-house use of academic library collections to assess differences according to use, measurement technique, and time period. The discussion examines differences in current periodical use and other kinds of uses, differences between circulation and in-house use, and the reliability of short sampling periods. (13…

This review of the literature on the effect of information overload on users' information-seeking behavior focuses on librarians' opinions about the number of references that constitute too many, and users' preferences for maximum numbers of references from online searches, online public access catalog postings, and manual indexes. (35 references)…

Presents results of two equivalent questionnaires distributed to college faculty and students to determine if faculty expectations of student library use differed from students' perceptions of their actual use; and if expectations and use were affected by college division, student class level, or class level taught. (Author/EJS)

Reports on a study that examined transaction logs of end users of PaperChase searching UM-MEDLINE at the University of Michigan to describe the use of various search features and to determine the effects of search experience on the use of search features. Boolean operators are discussed, and further studies are suggested. (23 references) (LRW)

Describes methodology for analyzing MARC (machine-readable cataloging) records of highly circulating titles to document common characteristics for collection development purposes. Application of the methodology in a university library is discussed, and data are presented on commonality of subject heading, author, language, and imprint date for…

Results of study on patron information retrieval success and patron use patterns at Ohio State University show that 90 percent of online users preferred online to card catalog; 64 percent of those who tried online catalog switched to it; and patrons used the online more than the card catalog. References are provided. (EJS)

Reports measures of the gains in search time and likelihood of success in known-item searches with the Acorn automated catalog at Vanderbilt University. User time and search success are valued in dollar terms to make the measures meaningful for system design choices. (Author/CLB)

Reports on a survey of nontraditional student opinion about academic libraries in four areas: how they used the library, when they wanted to use the library, which library services they felt were important, and how they evaluated some library services. Group comparisons were made based on full- or part-time status, gender, and age. (Contains 29…