Describes the six tasks required in the development of an online database: analysis, design, programing, testing, loading, and documentation. Figures illustrate file formats, and a bibliography lists five sources. (FM)

Proposes a microprocessor-based architecture that makes large use of parallelism both in processing and in retrieval operations. The proposed system consists of three functional blocks: the query processor, simple query executers, and the answer composer. Twenty-one references are listed. (FM)

Proposes a summarization system for multiple documents that employs named entities and other signatures to cluster news from different sources, as well as punctuation marks, linking elements, and topic chains to identify the meaningful units (MUs). Using nouns and verbs to identify similar MUs, focusing and browsing models are applied to represent…

Describes the architecture and functioning of a system developed specifically for text processing applications--such as information retrieval--that can benefit from structural comparisons between elements of text, such as queries and abstracts. The general ways in which the system performs matches and the ways in which this objective influenced…

Describes SCISOR (System for Conceptual Information Summarization, Organization and Retrieval), a prototype intelligent information retrieval system that extracts useful information from large bodies of text. It overcomes limitations of linguistic coverage by applying a text processing strategy that is tolerant of unknown words and gaps in…

This paper proposes a user designed system, HUC, intended to provide a single index and retrieval system covering all recorded knowledge and information capable of being retrieved from all modes of storage, from manual to the most sophisticated retrieval system. The concept integrates terminal hardware, software, and database structure to allow…

Presents a model that places Boolean database queries into conjunctive normal form, thereby allowing probabilistic ranking of documents and the incorporation of relevance feedback. Experimental results compare the performance of a sequential learning probabilistic retrieval model with the proposed integrated Boolean probabilistic model and a fuzzy…

Discusses the multilevel information system (MLIS), a retrieval system that integrates functions typical for database management systems and retrieval-oriented systems and provides several levels of data accessing, each developed for a different class of users. Twenty-two sources are cited. (FM)

Discusses the feasibility and advantages of developing an enhancement for document retrieval systems that would automatically impose Boolean syntax on an input set of search terms. An online specification for such an enhancement is presented, based on experimental results using the MEDLINE database. (13 references) (CLB)

Describes an interface mechanism called "complex view support" to be used with a relational database system (RDBS) in supporting increasingly complex distributed environments in automated library systems. The interface system refers queries to multidimensional tables as well as to flat tables on RDBS and is shown to efficiently support…

A theoretical framework used to derive a weighting mechanism for ranking output documents in Boolean retrieval systems is described in detail. A simple illustrative example is included, and the implications of such an approach are discussed. (64 references) (Author/CLB)

Presents a model of human information needs which classifies information need types by their inherent properties. The influence of information needs on human behavior, and the need to incorporate this concept into information storage and retrieval systems, are discussed. (15 references) (CLB)

Describes a comparative study of the "help" facilities of 16 interactive information retrieval systems. Guidelines for the design of a "help" facility are presented and then used to evaluate the quality and friendliness of each system. Suggestions for the improvement of online "help" facilities are discussed. (31…

Discussion of user-relevance judgments in information retrieval focuses on findings from four separate studies of relevance judgments by 55 users conducting their initial online search on a particular information problem. Highlights include a theoretical framework, models of relevance, and implications for information-retrieval system design and…

Outlines an approach to the automatic construction of a knowledge base resulting in a system that is able in each phase of its construction to acquire domain knowledge from all new information that it is building, particularly index terms. Topics covered include production rules, the use of semantic networks, and user interfaces. (32 references)…