Updates the comparison of the ELHILL (currently ELHILL 3, formerly ELHILL 2) and STAIRS programs as they affect on-line searching of the MEDLARS citation file. (Author)

These quarterly reports for September and December 1978 are two in a series providing a formative evaluation of the Individualized Instruction for Data Access (IIDA) project, an investigation of searching behavior patterns conducted to develop (1) a model of good searching procedure which could be used as the basis for teaching new users of IIDA…

PROBE, a batch-mode information retrieval program used to search the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) data base, was developed by Indiana University. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, questionnaires were given to the users of 200 consecutive searches during February 1973. Relevance ratios were computed by comparing the…

This report provides a brief general summary of progress in a 2-year project renewing earlier work on the development of Individualized Instruction for Data Access (IIDA)--a system for teaching online searching techniques for bibliographic data bases--as well as an in-depth report on the IIDA computer system design. The Connector for Networked…

Controlled experiments conducted to compare effectiveness of enhanced experimental computer intermediary system, CONIT, with that of human expert intermediary search specialists indicate that experimental intermediary techniques are now capable of providing search assistance whose effectiveness at least approximates that of human intermediaries in…

Two programs addressed the development of information retrieval systems useful to a variety of users. One program was designed to examine aspects of indexing and information display. Experiments with different indexing and display systems revealed that for good relevance judgements, a display with full citation, keyboards, and abstract is…

Strategies, heuristics, and tradeoffs involved in online searching of bibliographic citation networks are discussed using results from field of citation analysis to describe mathematical structure of citation networks. Discussion of two studies of human information seeking behavior examines the search question and interconnectivity of the…

A query language which is suitable for use with a relational data base system is discussed. The language is developed as an extension of ideas found in programming languages as well as relational calculus. The development is a step towards the integration of programming languages, query languages, and data base systems. The language offers a…

A new method for concentrating keywords of a thesaurus, based on a mathematical study of the distribution of characters in a defined natural language. (Author/KP)

An experimental program using two magnetic tape data bases from Chemical Abstracting Service ("CT," and "CA Condensates") at the University of California at Riverside (UCR) is reported. Cost studies are based entirely upon the University's ability to purchase the tapes and the Computing Center's interest in underwriting part of…

The paper describes TSAR, a current awareness or SDI system which has been developed for processing MARC records in general, but is particularly concerned with the INSPEC service. Some statistics on the frequency of occurrence of words and comments on data compression conclude the paper. (7 references) (Author/SJ)

Advantages of the Berkeley Mass Storage System (MSS) for information retrieval other than its size are: high serial-read rate, archival data storage; and random-access capability. By use of this device, the search cost in an SDI system based on the Nuclear Science Abstracts" data base was reduced by 20 percent. (6 references) (Author/NH)

Describes an online microcomputer-based system called Reference Librarian Enhancement System (REFLES) which stores factual information. Examples of data in the system and uses of the service are presented, as well as considerations for the future. Twelve (12) references are included. (Author/BK)

Describes XMARC, a set of computer programs which provides students with a simplified means of writing programs for the automatic indexing of an experimental collection of MARC records. (Author/FM)