As an exploration of the frustration experienced by users of an on-line interactive retrieval system, students participated in an experiment using an experimental reference retrieval system for library literature. It was anticipated that significant variations in user behavior would be displayed by the control and experimental groups. (19…

Like a table of contents in print material, a computer-presented menu presents information. It informs a user of the topics that are available. Some menus present information by categories and thus communicate the organization as well as the content of the program. In addition to providing information, menus serve as a selection and retrieval…

Reports on the development of the Individualized Instruction for Data Access System (IIDA), a computer system designed at Drexel University, which serves as an intermediary enabling users to perform complex tasks on another computer. Capabilities of the instruction mode and assistance mode are discussed. Fifteen references are cited. (EJS)

The realization that the facilities available for the retrieval of scientific and technical information were being underutilized resulted in a project undertaken by the Drexel University School of Library and Information Science to develop a computer intermediary capable of assisting users of scientific and technical information in the performance…

Controlled experiments were conducted with an enhanced experimental intermediary system, CONIT (COnnector for Networked Information Transfer), to test how effective such a system could be in assisting end users in online searching of medical and biomedical literature. A total of 16 end users, none of whom had previously operated CONIT or any of…

"Intermedia" is a hypermedia system which was developed for use in university research and teaching. It provides a framework for object-oriented, direct manipulation editors and applications, and the capability to link together materials created with those applications. Instructors are able to construct exploratory environments for their…

Testing in an industrial setting of the Individualized Instruction for Data Access System--an intermediary system designed to train and assist users in conducting computer searches--demonstrates that end users can learn to do bibliographic searches through computer-assisted instruction that are as satisfactory as searches performed for them.…

Discussion of information retrieval, knowledge representation, and computer-assisted learning focuses on a study that created a computer-based system designed to observe and record users' interactions with an ideal knowledge base consisting of unrevealed subject experts, appropriate documentation, and computer files. Information accessing…

A brief review is provided of the strategy, information services, seminars, demonstrations, software acquisition policy, educational development, and cooperative efforts of the CEDAR Project, which aims to encourage and facilitate the development and effective use of educational computing within Imperial College, the University of London, and…

A translating-computer-interface approach to providing a common, or virtual-system, mode of access to a network of heterogeneous online bibliographic retrieval systems has been investigated. Enhanced access to such systems by end users has been demonstrated through test usage of an experimental interface. A table-driven, rule-based message…

A description is provided of GUIDE-0, an experimental information system. The system serves as a bibliographic aid for students who are taking introductory computer science courses whose material is at least partially implemented via PLATO-IV lessons. Following a brief introduction to the system in Chapter I, the second Chapter describes the…

The results of the second 18 months (December 15, 1968-June 30, 1970) of effort toward developing an Information Processing Laboratory for research and education in library science is reported in six volumes. This volume contains: the basic on-line interchange, DISCUS operations, programming in DISCUS, concise DISCUS specifications, system author…

A new conception of computer-based instructional systems is presented in this design of a system that can deliver individualized information sequences not only to learners and trainees, but to reference workers, reviewers, etc. Underlying the system is a flexible data base organized into labelled, movable information blocks according to the…

Research and development work on the use of the SCHOLAR autotutorial, online system is described. Inference strategies used within the system are deductive, negative, and functional in character. A graphics package allows user to ask questions and give commands in English to control SCHOLAR's map display capability. The examples shown are for…

Last in a series of research projects on the implications of technological change and automation, this study is concerned with the use of computers in formal education and educational administration; in library systems and subsystems; in legal, legislative, and related services; in medical and hospital services; and in national and centralized…