QUEST is an interactive conversational Programming System (CPS) that was developed to serve as a conversational interface between a searcher of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) files and the North Carolina Science and Technology Research Center's Inverted File Search Program (STRC-IVS). This paper describes QUEST: its costs,…

Reports preliminary results of a study to develop and automate new metrics for assessment of information quality in text documents, particularly in news. Through focus group studies, quality judgment experiments, and textual feature extraction and analysis, nine quality aspects were generated and applied in human assessments. Experiments were…

The article describes the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), an information retrieval system, and the Northern Illinois University Clearinghouse in Career Education (CICE), a part of the ERIC system that prepares information on industrial arts, and on adult, vocational and technical, and career education. (Author/BP)

Describes the production of computer-generated author and key-word-from-title indexes to book reviews in physics: the sources, the processing, and the storage and retrieval system. Data elements available from the indexes include author, title, local call number, publisher, year of imprint, month and year of publication, series, cost, and…

Batch mode processing is compared, using cost-effectiveness, with on-line processing for computer-aided searching of chemical abstracts. Consideration for time, need, coverage, and adaptability are found to be the criteria by which a searcher selects a method, and sometimes both methods are used. There is a tradeoff between batch mode's slower…

A brief introduction to information retrieval by use of a variety of computer data bases including ERIC is presented. (JMF)

Presents an overview of feedback within the cybernetics and social frameworks. These feedback concepts are then compared with the interactive feedback concept evolving within the framework of information seeking and retrieving, based on their conceptualization of the feedback loop and notion of information. (Author/AEF)

Describes Pharos, a prototype that automatically classifies and summarizes Internet newsgroups using the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) scheme. Topics addressed include the methodology of collection summarization and selection, constructing an online LCC outline, evaluation, limitations of the system, and classification of nontextual…

This report examines the features of computer information systems, differentiating between data files, search systems, and computer information organizations. An annotated listing is provided of those computer information retrieval files of interest to the music education researcher. This listing is divided into five categories: (1) music and…

Social science data, existing in a format that can be manipulated by computing machinery, can be used for many purposes in addition to those for which they were initially collected. Scholars and government planners should hve ready and equal access to such material and these groups will be best served if they are informed regarding the…

Focuses on synthesis in research--the combination of thesis and antithesis in the dialectical process, producing a new and higher form of being. Discusses kinds of synthesis (unique communication, plan of operation, abstract relations); synthesizing information pieces; summary practice leading to synthesis; and questions of analysis and synthesis.…

To test the concept of "shape of information," 72 participants (half from an academic setting, half from the general public) examined 24 documents typically used in the academic environment. Results indicated that when document shape was evident, the document was immediately discernible to participants; when participants were required to…

Proposes a method for protein name extraction from biological texts. The method exploits hand-crafted rules based on heuristics and a set of protein names (dictionary). The approach avoids use of natural language processing tools so as to improve processing speed. Evaluation experiments were conducted in terms of: accuracy, generalizability, and…

This paper is the second step in the preparation of forecasts of occupational and industrial information which will meet the needs of the Information System for Vocational Decisions (ISVD). The author discusses the computation routines which need to be developed, tested and operationalized toward the goal of combining occupational and industrial…

Librarians and information scientists have debated whether traditional cataloging methods can bring order to the Internet. Reviews literature on alternative strategies for organizing and accessing information resources on the Internet that incorporate some aspect of traditional library expertise, including library catalogs, subject trees,…