Discusses the shortcomings of present online catalogs and some concepts and implementations for hypercatalogs. A prototype for a hypertext-based library catalog, HyperKGB, is described and its design principles and functionality are outlined. (Author/AEF)

Examines the bibliometrics of the World Wide Web based on analysis of Web pages collected by the Inktomi "Web Crawler" and on the use of the DEC AltaVista search engine for cocitation analysis of a set of Earth Science related Web sites. Looks at the statistical characteristics of Web documents and their hypertext links, and the…

"MedLine Search Assistant" is a new interface for MEDLINE searching that improves both search precision and recall by helping the user convert a free text search to a controlled vocabulary-based search in a visual environment. Features of the interface are described, followed by details of the conceptual design and the physical design of…

Reviews the characteristics of the Cheshire II system that is being used to implement full-text and fielded searching of bibliographic information for the University of California Berkeley Digital Library Initiative. Examines its performance when applied to a collection of large full-text documents in the TREC Interactive Retrieval Track and its…

Examines visual information needs as expressed in users' Web image queries; the data set consisted of 1,025,908 sequential queries from 211,058 users of EXCITE, a major Internet search service. Provides data on: image queries, image search sessions, and image terms. Discusses implications for the development of models for visual information…

Users in this study of two Web browsers had significantly higher success with Internet Explorer than with Netscape Navigator, made a variety of errors in several tasks, and those reporting higher self-confidence had significantly higher success scores. Results confirm the expectation that affective and cognitive measures add valuable user-centered…

Presents results from a study of three federal government statistical Web sites. Objectives were to determine who uses these services, types of tasks brought to the sites, strategies used for finding statistical information, and to make recommendations for design improvements. (Author/AEF)

Describes the ViewFinder interface, designed at Indiana University as a client to a database server; it supports querying based on both visual and verbal clues. Presents results of usability analysis performed on ViewFinder with 18 users. High search success rates were achieved through both types of querying means; verbal clues were used more than…

Describes an integrated approach to similarity coefficients that allows multiple index dimensions to be integrated into a single, flexible navigation tool. Categorizes different types of similarity measures by the kinds of index terms they employ and describes the underlying similarity measures. (Author/AEF)

Describes a study of users' document selection behavior that was conducted to build a tentative cognitive model of document selection behavior to be used in designing intelligent information retrieval systems. Topics addressed include studies of relevance and of decision making; value judgments; and document information elements considered during…

Proposes a useful concept of relevance as a relationship and an effect on the movement of a user through the iterative stages of their information seeking process, and that users' relevance judgments can be plotted on a Three-Dimensional Spatial Model of Relevance Level, Degree and Time. Discusses implications for the development of information…

Presents an overview of "Q&A," a Web-based question-answering system that mediates interactions between an expert and a question-asking user. Discusses the system's components and features; details of the implementation; evaluation; and future work. (AEF)

Describes the design of a prototype adaptive online catalog that was implemented as a transparent workstation-based front end system to MELVYL, the online catalog for the University of California libraries. Problems with searching bibliographic retrieval systems are reviewed, including irrelevant retrievals and the inexperience of most users.…

Discussion of search strategy formulation focuses on a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that analyzed how medical students developed and revised search strategies for microbiology database searches. Implications for future research on search behavior, for system interface design, and for end user training are suggested. (16…