This paper compares the subject indexing on articles pertaining to Immanuel Kant, agriculture, and aging that are found simultaneously in Humanities Index, Academic Search Elite (EBSCO) and Periodicals Research II (Micromedia ProQuest), in order to show that there are substantial variations in the depth and quality of indexing in these databases.…

Explores differences in precision of terms used in subject access in the humanities, differentiating by the exactness with which the phenomena designated can be located in space and time. Samples of 200 terms from seven indexes in the humanities are classified according to five categories of terms. Six tables present results of data analyses. (22…

Applies a recently suggested method for the automatic indexing of full text to extracts from the Brown Corpus and finds that scientific and technical extracts give rise to a larger number of index terms than social science and humanities extracts. Four tables and an 8-item reference list accompany the text. (Author/JL)

Discussion of research in the humanities focuses on the "MLA International Bibliography," the primary database for literary research. Highlights include comparisons to research in the sciences; humanities vocabulary; database search techniques; contextual indexing; examples of searches; thesauri; and software. (43 references) (LRW)

Reports a study that analyzed natural language search statements constructed by 22 Getty Visiting Scholars as they researched humanities topics on DIALOG. Results show a greater use of names, geographical areas, chronological periods, and discipline terms than scientists use, with implications for the design of humanities online systems and…