Reports on a comparative investigation of WAIS, a networking and finding aid used on the Internet, and a Boolean-based retrieval system. The terms and limitations of the study are described, and the comparative recall and precision rates are given. The problems and potential of WAIS and other highly interactive search systems are presented.…

The work reported is part of a series of studies aimed at providing information and assistance to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in planning the Biomedical Communications Network (BCN). The first part reviews the literature on systems relevant to BCN design, documents System Development Corporation's position with respect to certain…

Designed to assist educators in selecting a computer network, this paper contains a listing and description of seven networks that currently exist specifically for educators, and compares the quality of their services in the areas of accessibility, responsiveness, cost, text editing, humanization, guidance and documentation, control, forgiveness…

Presents a chart which compares selected command functions of DIMDI and IRS/ESA, two major versions of the EURONET Common Command Language, with the IRS/ESA-Quest retrieval language and includes specific remarks for most of the commands. (RBF)

Investigates one component of a Web site--the index structure, comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of 20 subjects who used one index and three experimental variants to complete five tasks. Findings indicate that a hypertext index with multiple access points for each concept, all linked to the same resource, led to greater effectiveness and…

Describes plans for an investigation of gopher protocol use for browsing and searching for information available via the Internet. Use of classification schemes based on traditional library models will be compared to the use of an existing gopher. Research questions, literature on related issues, construction of the classification schemes, and the…

Compares traditional cataloging to Web-based. Discusses intellectual-access issues as they apply to reference services today, and outlines deficiencies in traditional cataloging, and corresponding attributes of Web-based intellectual access. Notes ways that catalogers and public-service librarians can address these issues. (Author/AEF)

Describes how the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and several other databases were added to the online public access catalog at Indiana State University, and explores impacts of enhancing access in this manner at several academic libraries. Telecommunications and software design consideration are also discussed, together with…

A study investigated the attitudes of African students of business English at a British university (University of Brighton, England) toward use of the Internet as an educational resource. Students were given an introduction to Internet use for research on individual projects, surveyed concerning their attitudes toward and initial experiences with…