To assist researchers, practitioners, and students in locating journal articles, books, papers, and reports relevant to all aspects of document design, the Document Design Project staff at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) is designing and building a computerized reference library using the operating system ZOG. The library will include material…

Retrieval terminals have been placed in four public libraries in Northern California to provide access to sixteen different data bases. The first year of this two-year experiment is described, and some of the technical, organizational, and economic aspects of the study are reviewed. (Author)

A series of five runs comprised of 20 searches each were carried out in a three-year span of the INSPEC data base. The same queries were processed manually in the corresponding volumes of Science Abstracts, and comparison of the output of each search method exposed reasons for the failures. Emphasis is laid on the fact that a query comprises other…

A comparison of costs for computer-based searching of Psychological Abstracts and Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) systems by the New York State Library at Albany was produced by combining data available from search request forms and from bills from the contract subscription service, the State University of New…

"The purpose of this paper is to bring to computer professionals a realistic view of what a large library is and what the jobs and costs are which a librarian must worry about. Written by the director of libraries at MIT. (Author/LS)

The investigation of the performance, economics, and acceptability to users of the selective dissemination of information (SDI) computer system that supported the International Information Service in Physics, Electrotechnology, Computers, and Control (INSPEC) during its initial testing phase is described. The initial design of the study, involving…

The Census Access Program at the University of Florida makes available the computerized 1970 U.S. Census of Population and Housing.'' Faculty, students, planning agencies and commercial interests make use of the system. Discussed are personnel and management requirements. (DH)

Costs and cost-related factors connected with providing on-line search services through the public library are examined. The examination was based on preliminary results from an on-going evaluation of an experimental program (DIALIB). In the DIALIB experiment Lockheed's DIALOG search service was available to the public through four public…

A cost analysis was made of on-line bibliographic searching in four public libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area using the Lockheed DIALOG system. The study involved monitoring the time that 35 individuals in the libraries spent processing some 411 search requests. The study identified a set of seven tasks that are performed for each request and…

Regardless of the inadequacies of the new information retrieval systems, and despite the serious social inequalities which will result from charging fees for information, most libraries are incorporating the computer-assisted bibliographic searching devices into their reference operations, and passing the costs on to the users. (Author)

Twelve papers from the Twelfth Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing are presented here. Following an introductory paper are two articles on data bases and information sources. The fourth article discusses computer-aided information retrieval in an industrial library. Bibliographic searches is the topic of the fifth article, and…

A simulation study of library-based information retrieval systems is described. Basic models for each of several important aspects are presented: (1) user behavior, emphasizing response to quality and delays in services; (2) the scheduling of services and the organization of the machine-readable files; and (3) the distribution of conventional…

Utilization of the computer to assist library information processing and retrieval is discussed. Problems associated with computer application and discussion of existing information services utilizing computers is included. (JG)

The four papers in this collection discuss the planning, development, and use of online library catalogs. The first article on the requirements for online catalogs by Velma Veneziano describes such specific features as comprehensiveness, flexibility, affordability, availability, structured access, user friendliness, level of cataloging, and status…

The growth and proliferation of machine-readable data bases have created a need to consider the nature of recent developments, the impact of those developments on library and information services, and their relationship with the National Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS) program. Data bases may contain information in a variety…