Ruscio and colleagues (Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, & Mahalchik, this issue) provide a thoughtful empirical analysis of 22 different measures of individual scholarly impact. The simplest metric is number of publications, which Simonton (1997) found to be a reasonable predictor of career trajectories. Although the assessment of the scholarly…

Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) evaluate 22 bibliometric indicators, including conventional measures, like the number of publications, the "h" index, and many "h" index variants. To assess the quality of the indicators, their well-justified criteria encompass conceptual, empirical, and practical…

Proposes indexing technical information by function and attribute instead of indexing by subject to increase retrieval efficiency. Reasons for the lack of accurate and comprehensive technical product information in databases and the need for an improvement in reference services are discussed. (RBF)

Presents an access method for temporal data called the Snapshot Index that reconstructs a past state of a time-evolving collection of objects. Previous approaches to temporal access methods are reviewed, and migrating data to write-once optical disks are discussed. (Author/LRW)

Describes the different approaches taken by the Chemical Abstracts Services database, which abstracts and indexes chemical publications, and the Belstein Handbook of Organic Chemistry database, which produces a collection of critical reviews. The resulting content of the databases and their ability to meet the needs of different users are…

Discusses problems of lemmatization encountered by lexicographers and concordance-makers with highly inflected languages such as Serbo-Croatian and recommends the use of the computer in classifying individual works by dictionary-entry form. Suggests that computerized stylistic scanning of large literary databases is necessary to test the…

Discusses strengths of abstracting and indexing services (subject coverage, resolution of language problems, systematic indexing) and summarizes sources, countries of origin, languages, total coverage, and indexing of four scientific and technical services--Biosis, Engineering Information, Inspec, Chemical Abstracts Service. Characteristics of…

Discusses standards as tools to promote compatibility and improve practice, the role of research versus expert opinion in creating standards, and the changing scope of indexing standards. The current draft of the NISO (National Information Standards Organization) American Standard Guidelines for Indexes in Information Retrieval (Z39.4) is…

Three online databases that provide information on regional, state, and local business news are compared in terms of publications indexed, indexing guidelines, record structure, span of coverage, currency, and availability. (CLB)

The director of the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements describes the "Mental Measurements Yearbook,""Tests in Print," the institute's online database, its symposium, and symposium books. Suggestions to librarians for increasing effectiveness of service to users of tests are included. (Author/EM)

Describes H. W. Wilson's information retrieval system which provides access to such familiar printed indexes as "Social Sciences Index,""Humanities Index,""Education Index," and "Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature." Use of this flexible system is explained and illustrated. (CDD)

Argues that the major forces related to economic factors that effect the future of secondary services are growth of primary literature and expansion of secondary products; migration of use from print products to tape products; new technology and impact on production of products and services; and redefinition of user as end user. (EJS)

The Video PATSEARCH system consists of a microcomputer with a special keyboard and two display screens which accesses the PATSEARCH database of United States government patents on the Bibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS) search system. The microcomputer retrieves text from BRS and matching graphics from an analog optical videodisc. (Author/JJD)

A study of the responsiveness of two indexes to patrons' requests for health-related information in a public library compares both the results and the costs of searching the same questions in a printed index (Readers' Guide) and a computerized database (Magazine Index). Eighteen references are listed. (RAA)

Reviews the origin, current state of development, and subject coverage of the secondary access services available to American social scientists, including bibliographic services for the various academic disciplines and a large variety of specialized services for subdisciplines and interdisciplinary fields. A 10-item reference list accompanies the…