This experiment searches an online library catalog employing author surnames, plus one or two title words of books in citations of eight scholarly works whose authors selected the title words as being recallable. Results of searches yielded a single-screen miniature catalog (minicat) 99% of the time. (Author/LRW)

Describes research that examined the feasibility of automatically deriving name access points from machine readable title pages of English language monographs. An algorithm for automatic derivation is presented and results using the algorithm are compared to traditionally cataloged name access points. The implications for bibliographic standards…

Reports on a project that applied existing metadata formats to Kent State University Museum's collection of fashionable and traditional costumes from the 18th through the 20th centuries. From a set of 90 museum accession records, 42 fashion objects were selected for cataloging, and three metadata treatments were created for these items. (AEF)

A founder trustee of OCLC recounts the steps toward automation of library catalogs encountered during his career, from the use of punched cards in a circulation system to the implementation of online union catalogs. (CLB)

Discusses the patterns of growth of literature concerning online public access catalogs (OPACs) in the field of library and information science for the years 1970-85. The least squares method and the May procedure, which were used in the study, are explained, and application of the logistic model is described. (16 references) (LRW)

Grounded on object filtering, automatic indexing, and co-occurrence analysis, an experiment was performed using a parallel supercomputer to analyze over 400,000 abstracts in an INSPEC computer engineering collection. A user evaluation revealed that system-generated thesauri were better than the human-generated INSPEC subject thesaurus in concept…

Describes a study that examined the effectiveness of implied boolean searches using personal author surnames plus first and/or last title words to retrieve an entry from a simulated online public access catalog (OPAC). Implications for the design of OPACs are discussed, and further research is suggested. (LRW)

Describes online catalog research being conducted in Europe in the areas of interaction and interface design, subject access, functional improvement through the application of information retrieval techniques, and library networks. Three operational online catalogs, not available outside Europe, are discussed. (30 references) (CLB)

Proposes an approach to the analysis of cataloging rules, in particular, rules for bibliographic description, in terms of orientedness, a concept employed to explore directiveness or inclination of a characteristic toward a given objective or function. Assesses the validity and usefulness of the proposed approach and reviews its problems and…

Discusses the application of information science concepts to problems in museum collections management and describes a project in which the Vancouver Maritime Museum recataloged its historic watercraft collection. A list of fields to be used in computerized cataloging of historical watercraft is proposed, as well as cataloging protocol. (29…

Noting that standards are needed to enable libraries using different processors and different operating systems to connect their computers and share services in meaningful ways, this article examines the content and status of ANSI Z39.50: Information Retrieval Service Definition and Protocol Specification for Library Applications and related work.…

Reports on research on retrieval behavior of children using a school library online public access catalog. The impact of user characteristics, school setting, interface usability, and information access features on information retrieval are considered. Overall patterns of children's behavior that influence retrieval and findings about strategies…

Examines bibliographic relationships within the context of a global bibliographic database. Results of this research indicate that a core of works of similar character constitute the bibliographic population of American academic and research libraries (OCLC, Online Computer Library Center members). The size of a bibliographic family seems to be…

Describes a study that investigated the information-seeking behavior of users searching a card catalog and a comparable online catalog. The purpose was to explore whether a theory of human remembering, retrieval by reformulation, might be useful in explaining search behavior in bibliographic databases. (61 references) (CLB)

Presents results of experiments conducted on four versions of the Science Library Catalog (SLC), a Dewey decimal-based hierarchical browsing system implemented in HyperCard without a keyboard. The SLC approach helps children overcome problems with typing, spelling, vocabulary, and Boolean logic. (70 references) (AEF)