This report describes various aspects of generalized or task-oriented programing systems and in particular, how their features can be adapted for retrieval from (typical) information center and library data bases such as those described in a previous report (LI 000 498). It is not meant to be comprehensive in the sense that all such systems are…

The purpose of the Library of Congress Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) pilot project was to provide libraries with catalog data encoded on magnetic tape in order to determine the feasibility of centralized computerized cataloging in support of library functions. Sixteen participants were selected on the basis of expressed interest, available…

The report specifies the design of the data entry system for the Sample Data System subsystems (SDS-1 and SDS-2) providing connectability to meet previously specified purposes and functions of the Management Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE). General assumptions for specifying the SDS data entry system are stated including the…

Computer routines to summarize data and generate reports from weekly log records submitted by teachers participating in the Southwest Regional Laboratory's communications skills monitoring program are described. Written in Univac FORTRAN V, Communications Skills 1, Weekly Log Summary, Revision 1 (CS-1-WLSR1) displays information by student group,…

User experiments are the main theme of this tenth issue in the series of Project Intrex semiannual activity reports. This system is undergoing tests with users who are motivated by their need for information rather than an interest in the machinery by which it is stored, retrieved and presented. Test results will indicate which fields in the…

Three specific contributions to the field of information retrieval are presented. The first two describe the establishment of an adaptive, interactive man-machine dialogue that produces a form of unsolicited librarian-like assistance for the user in his selection of index terms to characterize an indexing function. The data set upon which the…

Medsirch (Medical Search) is an information retrieval system designed to aid in preparing examinations for medical students. There are two versions of the system: a sequential access file suitable for shallow indexing with a broad choice of search terms and a random direct access file for deep indexing with a restricted range of choices for search…

A question answering system which permits a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) student greater initiative in the variety of questions he can ask is described. A method is presented to represent the dynamic processes of a subject matter area by augmented finite state automata, which permits efficient inferencing about dynamic processes and…

The report describes the Classroom Information and Computing Service (CLICS), a pedagogical computer-based information system that is used as a case study in the subject "Information Systems" in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering at M.I.T. CLICS is an abstraction of the Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (MULTICS) that is being…

The trend toward on-line utilization of computers in recent years has included the emergence of computer support systems to fill the information processing needs of individuals engaged in scientific research. In this study, a new approach to document description is applied to the design of a personal information storage and retrieval system,…

The automated identification of students as they progress through an instructional program is described as an essential capability of the Southwest Regional Laboratory's (SWRL) Instructional Management System (IMS). Performance characteristics of procedures for linking data to individual students (whose records are maintained by IMS) are…

The Instructional Management System (IMS) developed by the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) processes student and teacher-generated data through the use of an optical scanner that produces a magnetic tape (Scan Tape) for input to IMS. A series of computer routines, OPSN, preprocesses the Scan Tape and prepares the data for transmission to the…

The use of a system for on-line conversation in ordinary English grammatical patterns is illustrated by a number of examples showing how data bases of diverse content and structure may be described, interrogated, and modified. It is suggested that a system composed of a user extendable subset of English, a natural language compiler to translate…

A project is being conducted to test the feasibility of an information storage and retrieval system for museum specimen data, particularly for natural history museums. A pilot data processing system has been developed, with the specimen records from the national collections of birds, marine crustaceans, and rocks used as sample data. The research…

The report prepared for the Five Associated University Libraries (FAUL) by the Technical Information Dissemination Bureau (TIDB) at Suny-Buffalo is divided into nine sections: (1) a summary of procedures used to accomplish the specified MASFILE-II tasks; (2) a graphic comparison of the MARC-II and the MASFILE-II formats; (3) recommend…