Information retrieval (IR) systems have tremendously broaden users' access to information. However, users need to select their needs from trillions of information indexed daily. Due to the "semantic gap" between queries and indexed terms in IR system, whether users can satisfy their needs depends on whether they use the correct terms as…

The web is a rich and diverse information source with incredible amounts of information about all kinds of subjects in various forms. This information source affords great opportunity to build systems that support users in their work and everyday lives. To help users explore information on the web, web search systems should find information that…

Describes an experiment in automatic categorization, which is based on the vector model, widely used in information retrieval. Shows how the construction of the class patterns was carried out. Discusses the evaluation measures adopted and results obtained in the automatic categorization of a collection of documents in Spanish. Describes the manual…

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…

Textual properties of documents were analyzed to identify predictive variables for various document qualities by means of statistical and linguistic methods. A collection of 1000 documents was created, and each document was judged in terms of nine document qualities (accuracy, reliability, objectivity, depth, author/producer credibility,…

In information science, it is important to consider the nature and meaning of theories of aboutness, subject analysis and related concepts, which are closely related to theoretical and metatheoretical issues in information retrieval (IR). A theory of IR must specify which concepts should be regarded as synonymous concepts and explain how the…

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)

The need for and probable use of a comprehensive abstract journal in educational research is called for as indicated by educational researchers' frequent use of the journal article, as opposed to the technical report, as a source of information. (AM)

Introduces a novel approach to unsupervised text summarization. Proposes an "information-centric" approach to evaluation, where the quality of summaries is judged not in terms of how well they match human-created summaries but in terms of how well they represent their source documents in information retrieval tasks such as document…

Results of field study measuring end-user perceptions of sources of information (computer-based, libraries, individuals) suggest that accessibility is multidimensional concept encompassing physical access to source, interface with source, ability to physically retrieve potentially relevant information; and perceptions of accessibility are…

Examines fashioning of model for surrogate to facilitate user selection of appropriate film or video work for particular use. A matrix of time line and film or video document characteristics is proposed as primary aspect of surrogate graphic record, raising issues of description and sampling within abstracting process. (47 references) (EJS)

Outlines a view of the changing framework for information retrieval suggested by the Web environment. Speculates about how some of these changes may manifest in upcoming generations of information retrieval systems. Sketches ideas about the broader context of trust management infrastructure that will be needed to support these developments, and…

Describes an extensible object-oriented view system that supports the integration of both structured and unstructured data sources in either the multidatabase or data warehouse environment. Discusses related work and data mining issues. (AEF)

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…