The questionnaires' origin (sources from which elements of the questionnaire are derived) and initial development (process of making a questionnaire from elements) should be assessed before their measurement properties. There is no Critical Appraisal Tool (CAT) that comprehensively assesses the origin and initial development of questionnaires…

The ubiquity and familiarity of the world wide web means that students regularly turn to it as a source of information. In doing so, they "are said to rely heavily on simple search engines, such as Google to find what they want." Researchers have also investigated how students use search engines, concluding that "the young web users tended to…

We examine the frequency of price changes for 350 categories of goods and services covering about 70 percent of consumer spending, on the basis of unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1995-97. In comparison with previous studies, we find much more frequent price changes, with haft of prices lasting less than 4.3 months. Even…

Examines the key differences between the information industry and public libraries and describes the computerized Community Information Project of San Mateo County, California. (PF)

Considers the use of nonbibliographic databases, also known as source files, as an information service supplied to library users and notes commercially produced databases, brokerage firms offering a variety of small databases, community resource files, differences between use of bibliographic and non-bibliographic databases including fees, and…

The author believes it would be appropriate to review the current National Technical Information Service (NTIS) pricing policy in terms of its rationale, legality, and the possibility of mitigating or reversing the demonstrated pattern of repeated cost increases. (Author/SJ)

The need for the interconversion of chemical substructure systems is discussed and CHEMTRAN, a new service, designed especially for creating interconversion programs, is introduced. (7 references) (Author)

The study reported here was made for the purpose of evaluating external, computerized, literature-retrieval systems to determine their usefulness in a library without a computer facility. (Author)

The Document Delivery Service offered by Chemical Abstracts is described in terms of the DIALORDER option on the Dialog information retrieval system, mail requests, and requests transmitted through OCLC's Interlibrary Loan system. Transmission costs, success rates, delivery rates, and other considerations in utilizing the service are included.…

Review of 17 databases available through BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval Services) and/or DIALOG provides addresses of database producers, beginning date of files, and descriptions, including information which may not be given in database documentation. Two new services provided by BRS and DIALOG and three vendors with wider audiences are also…

This overview of 47 online sources for physics information available in the United States--including sub-field databases, transdisciplinary databases, and multidisciplinary databases-- notes content, print source, language, time coverage, and databank. Two discipline-specific databases (SPIN and PHYSICS BRIEFS) are also discussed. (EJS)

Describes the free advisory service available to both users and potential users of chemical and biological databases in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Three specific areas are discussed in which queries about Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry Numbers have been received: isomers, replacing registry numbers, and mixed compounds. (JD)

The ERIC Administrative Bulletin (EAB) is the internal "house organ" of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), the nationwide bibliographic information system covering the educational literature. ERIC is sponsored by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) within the U.S. Department of Education. The EAB…

Criteria for selection of data bases and data base services such as searching features, logical capacity, document delivery, output format and medium, and costs are examined. (Author)

A survey of the data bases used in satisfying some of the information requests received by the Bell Laboratories literature searching service revealed that 58 information sources were used 305 times and that 4 major sources accounted for 155 (51 percent) of the uses. (Author/JB)