The Maritime Research Information Service (MRIS), sponsored by the Maritime Administration and operated by the Transportation Research Board, distributes information to the maritime industry through monthly and semiannual publications, special bibliographies, computerized retrievals, and online retrieval directly through the Lockheed Dialog…

Data bases in the social sciences are briefly surveyed with emphasis on content, coverage, and currency. Coverage of certain topics are quantitatively compared among several social science and more general files. Techniques for on line thesaurus utilization and a systematic application of the same search strategies across multiple files are…

Discusses the quality of information retrieval using "free text" searching in full-text databases and presents a critical perspective on the importance of augmenting access to full-text databases through some form of text enhancement, such as the use of a limited controlled vocabulary for indexing general concepts. (Author/JL)

Discusses access to editorial cartoons, including the importance and worth of editorial cartoons; sources, including newspapers, museums, and special cartoon collections; indexing and classification; subject access; indexing by illustrator and subject; technology and access, including digital data; access to special collections; and access to…

The low rate of relevant titles (fewer than 50 percent) retrieved by online searching of keywords in titles in study conducted at the Mechanized Information Center, Ohio State University, is attributed to three sources: titles themselves, user ignorance of subject vocabulary, and general language problems. Eight references are cited. (EJS)

Describes the development of an in-house bibliographic database by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory on arctic wetlands research. Topics discussed include planning; identifying relevant search terms and commercial online databases; downloading citations; criteria for software selection; management…

Describes a study of professional searchers that investigated their decisions about using search terms. The use of descriptors from a controlled vocabulary versus the use of textwords for free-text searching is examined, searching styles and differences in subject areas are discussed, and the quality of thesauri and indexing is considered. (six…