The contributions in this volume represent a decade of OCLC's user behavior research findings that articulate the need for the design of future library services to be all about the user. Highlights include: (1) People associate the library with books and do not consider the library in relation to online resources or reference services; (2) People…

Introduction: The paper presents original research designed to explore and compare selected aspects of the information seeking behaviour of mathematicians (scientists and students) on the Internet. Method: The data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed at the end of 2011 and in January 2012. Twenty-nine professional mathematicians and…

The tremendously huge volume of biomedical literature, scientists' specific information needs, long terms of multiples words, and fundamental problems of synonym and polysemy have been challenging issues facing the biomedical information retrieval community researchers. Search engines have significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of…

Given the many changes in our students and their study and research practices, libraries are finding it necessary to seek new ways to reach these students. The Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a new model to do so. Librarian's Office Hours are a hybrid of reference and instructional services that…

Introduction: The purpose of this research is to assess information behaviour as it pertains to operational teams in dynamic safety critical operations. Method: In this paper, I describe some of the problems faced by crews on modern flight decks and suggest a framework modelled on Information Science, Human Factors, and Activity Theory research to…

Assesses the adequacy of Robert S. Taylor's model of question formulation in the context of online presearch interviews, and presents an altered model which introduces the bearers of needs and makes distinctions about those needs as isolated or negotiated events in the interviews. Thirty-three references are listed. (FM)

Presents a model that uses online searching to teach critical thinking skills in elementary and secondary education based on Bloom's taxonomy. Three levels of activity are described: analyzing a search statement; defining and clarifying a problem; and focusing an information need. (Contains 13 references.) (LRW)

Examines visual information needs as expressed in users' Web image queries on the Excite search engine. Discusses metadata; content-based image retrieval; user interaction with images; terms per query; term frequency; and implications for the development of models for visual information retrieval and for the design of Web search engines.…

Presents longitudinal case studies of four students in high school and after completion of college to compare their perceptions of the information search process in libraries. Library user studies are discussed, a model of the search process is described, and implications for the design of information systems are suggested. (36 references) (LRW)

Data on the characteristics, information needs, and information dissemination patterns of actual and potential users of educational information were gathered through field interviews with persons representing a variety of educational roles and geographical locations (Vol. I) as well as through a nationwide mail questionnaire survey (Vol. II).…

Describes the development of an information retrieval system designed for nonspecialist users that is based on the binary vector model. The syntactic structure of phrases used for indexing is examined, queries using an experimental collection of documents are described, and precision values are examined. (19 references) (LRW)

Reviews the TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) program, considering the test results, the findings for information retrieval, and the lessons TREC offers for information retrieval evaluation. Topics include the ad hoc retrieval task; indexing models; document and query descriptions; search strategies; and the user's request as the dominant factor in…

Proposes a model of the search term selection process based on an empirical study of professional searchers during the pre-online search stage; the model characterizes the selection of search terms as the navigation of different discourses. Six discourses emerged as sources of search terms: controlled vocabularies; documents and the domain; the…

Addresses foundations of designing a bibliographic database for casual end-users, including the representation of knowledge, hierarchical schemata, cognitive processing of search problems, basic level categories of knowledge, and Boolean strategy in online searching. A hierarchical-based query model, data-item model, and idealized data model for…

Discusses approaches to the integration of query-based information retrieval and browsing in a hypertext network. A prototype system developed to evaluate the proposed approach in terms of retrieval effectiveness and search efficiency is presented, and design and implementation issues concerning the prototype are considered. (30 references) (EA)