Proposes an approach to the analysis of cataloging rules, in particular, rules for bibliographic description, in terms of orientedness, a concept employed to explore directiveness or inclination of a characteristic toward a given objective or function. Assesses the validity and usefulness of the proposed approach and reviews its problems and…

The chains of search terms generated in the course of subject searches of a university library card catalog are investigated. (2 references) (SJ)

The Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers is investigated in terms of its coverage of American science journals and American scientists. The journals indexed by the catalogue are compared to other standard lists of journals from the nineteenth century. (Author)

Reviews some examples of library searches for both specified documents and specified subjects, and considers the distribution of library resources in relation to varying patterns of searches. (FM)

Factors studied are patron knowledge of subject field and knowledge of principles of the Library of Congress subject headings system. (KP)

Experiments studying the ability of catalog information to indicate the relevance and utility of documents by an analysis of the four main content indicating fields, e.g., the title, abstract, subject index phrases, and matching subject phrases are presented with data analysis. (Author/MBR)