Discussion of digital libraries focuses on the need for personalization capabilities so users can create their own personalized information environments. Highlights include material personalization; collection personalization; active reading; personalized retrieving; personalized filtering; and a prototype system. (LRW)

The National Library of Medicine's Current Information Transfer in English public access online catalog offers unique subject search capabilities--natural-language query input, automatic medical subject headings display, closest match search strategy, ranked document output, dynamic end user feedback for search refinement. References, description…

Describes textual database queries in the humanities based on poststructuralist theories and experiences with the ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language) database. The use of computers for literary research and text interpretation and analysis is considered. (Contains nine references.) (LRW)

Discusses methods of browsing in online public access catalogs (OPACs) and describes one method that uses information pertaining to the physical description of books from MARC records to simulate images of books on a library shelf. Electronic browsing through MARC is discussed, and methods of enhancing OPACs are reviewed. (51 references) (LRW)

Presents the conceptual design of a full-scale bibliographic database that includes bibliographic, authority, holdings, and classification data and is based on entity-relationship modeling. MARC format, AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules) compatibility, and normalization and efficiency are discussed. (Author/LRW)

A hierarchical extension to the American National Standard for Bibliographic Information Interchange on Magnetic Tape is defined and described. The accommodation of the extension within the existing standard is discussed, modifications to the existing standard are proposed, and applications of the hierarchical format are presented. (21 references)…

Describes the "Rutgers Inventory of Machine-Readable Texts in the Humanities" that provides bibliographic information through RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) for electronic texts in the humanities. Highlights include adaptation of MARC format; access points; search strategies; and unresolved issues in the bibliographic…

Discussion of factors which led Division of Library Automation, University of California, to configure its computing resources as they are now, notes distributed processing, centralized processing, machine architecture, selection of operating system, telecommunications software, software packages for online catalogs, and problems of overhead and…

Describes design and implementation of the Research Libraries Information Network Reports System, which provides generalized computer programs for selecting MARC records and preparing bibliographic lists. Discussion includes overview of list production, establishing control languages, selection (library and status filtering, logical filtering,…

Recommends an expansion of MARC codes for decimal class numbers to enhance automated subject retrieval. Five values for a second indicator and two new subfields are suggested for encoding hierarchical relationships among decimal class numbers. Additional subfields are suggested to enhance retrieval through analysis of synthesized numbers in…

Discusses some of the problems in creating bibliographic descriptions for materials published in languages which employ nonroman scripts, analyzes the impact of online catalog systems in overcoming some of these difficulties, and describes some of the computer hardware, particularly terminals, being developed to handle nonroman scripts. (JL)

Describes the evolution of computerized information storage and retrieval from its mid-nineteenth century beginnings in theoretical works on logic by George Boole, to the applications of Boole's logic to switching circuits by Claude Shannon in the 1930s, to the development of coordinate indexing by Mortimer Taube in the 1940s and 1950s. (Contains…

Summarizes difficulties in creating formal bibliographic citations to public access machine-readable documents (PAMD): no established format for PAMD references in tradition of scholarly writing; structure of computer conferencing results in authors using language different from that used in written communications; information storage problems of…

Describes a videodisc-based information display system in which a computer terminal is used to search the online PATSEARCH database from a remote host with local microcomputer control to select and display drawings from the retrieved records. System features and system components are discussed and criteria for system evaluation are presented.…

Discusses intelligent front-end processors designed to impose uniform standards on multiple databases and assist searchers, including motivation for development, prototypes from research community, commercial systems using microcomputers, capabilities and problems encountered in developing Franklin Institute's Online Database Search Assistance…