Discussion of database design that allows wider range of capabilities than conventional information retrieval database covers prestructuring of searches to pinpoint target items, which are selected from browseable display, and navigation capability, which allows user to move from record to record within database to facilitate extraction of…

The National Library of Medicine's Current Information Transfer in English public access online catalog offers unique subject search capabilities--natural-language query input, automatic medical subject headings display, closest match search strategy, ranked document output, dynamic end user feedback for search refinement. References, description…

Describes software for displaying documents on computer graphics screens which provide the opportunity for interactive user interfaces. Based on a software system called Guide, this new approach relies on advances in hardware, such as the CD ROM, and can be used in the front end of a document retrieval system. (Author/LRW)

CONTENTS--(1) AN ASSOCIATIVITY TECHNIQUE FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPTIMIZING RETRIEVAL RESULTS BY RONALD R. ANDERSON. AN ASSOCIATIVE TECHNIQUE BY WHICH IT IS POSSIBLE TO AUTOMATICALLY EXPAND AND NARROW THE NUMBER OF DOCUMENTS RETRIEVED AND TO RETRIEVE DOCUMENTS RELATED TO A REQUEST EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY NOT BE INDEXED BY THE EXACT TERMS OF THE REQUEST IS…

INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SYSTEMS ESTABLISH A DIALOG BETWEEN THE MAN AND THE MACHINE. BY MEANS OF DISPLAYS, THE USER RECEIVES IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK OF THE RESULT OF HIS ACTIONS, AND HE IS ABLE TO MODIFY HIS DECISIONS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A SYSTEM RESPONSE THAT IS MOST RELEVANT TO HIS NEEDS. BOLD (BIBLIOGRAPHIC ON-LINE DISPLAY) IS AN EXAMPLE OF A HIGHLY…

In this research project, subject terms from the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Schedules and Relative Index were incorporated into an online catalog as searcher's tools for subject access, browsing, and display. Four features of the DDC were employed to help searchers browse for and match their own subject terms with the online catalog's…

Discusses the characteristics of information retrieval software and examines several capabilities of two systems, SIRE and ZyINDEX--creating a database, indexing the database, maintaining the database, and searching the database. Each system's strengths and weaknesses in bibliographic record and full text applications are analyzed. A glossary is…

Details distinction between digital and analog data, advantages of analog storage, and optical disc use to store analog data. Configuration and potential of three levels of laser disc systems are explained. Selection of display devices for use with laser disc systems and accessing audio data are addressed. (Continued in next issue.) (EJS)

InfoQUEST is a microcomputer-based online public access catalog, designed for the small library handling file sizes up to 25,000 records. Based on the IBM-PC, or compatible machines, the system will accept downloading, in batch mode, of records from the library's file on the UTLAS Catalog Support System. (Author/EJS)

Project Intrex is a program of experiments intended to provide a foundation for the design of future information transfer systems, with the library of the future visualized as a computer-managed communications network. In order to discover the necessary facts, especially in the area of the user's interaction with the system, experimentation is…

This report presents a review and evaluation of three remote access on-line information retrieval systems and some ideas on what the capabilities of an ideal on-line information retrieval system should be. The three systems reviewed are the DDC Remote On-Line Retrieval System, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration RECON System, and the…

The Research Libraries group (headquartered at Stanford University) has a computer terminal that can be used to create and retrieve bibliographic information in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean vernacular scripts as well as in roman alphabet languages. The development, operation, and future of the system is described. (JN)

The ideal on-line information retrieval system would offer statistical inference analysis and heuristic optimization programs as aids to query formation, and would include on-line programs capable of automatically computing, generating, and executing optimal query formulations and retrieval on request. (Author/MM)

After three years of preparation, the Project Intrex research team has begun to subject parts of its augmented catalog system to interactions with users who were interested in the substance of the stored information and uncontaminated by prior association with the Intrex research effort. The experiences with users to date, as well as progress made…

Describes three major features of treatment of paradigmatic thesaural information in microcomputer-based concept network management system: use of simple graphic displays of thesaural or paradigmatic information (linktypes); use of thesaural information to generate indirect entries; capability of customizing index displays, including thesaural…