Provides a preliminary report of a multi-phase research study currently in progress about accidental discovery of information (information encountering) on the Web. Presents an introductory overview of the concept of information encountering and its research, explores this concept as it pertains to electronic environments, and summarizes two…

Provides a synopsis of a session that addressed the interaction between users of information retrieval systems and intermediaries, including presentations on (1) the role of face-work; (2) user-intermediary-computer interaction; (3) issues of democracy in interpersonal interaction; and (4) a conversation-analytic approach to the pre-online search…

In the "Ant World" project, items to be retrieved are "quests" represented by entire collections of judged documents. To save space and time, methods were developed for representing these complex entities in a short string of about 1,000 bytes, called a Digital Information Pheromone (DIP). Principles are presented for…

Examines traditional and interactive models that have emerged in information retrieval (IR), and proposes an interactive IR model based on different levels in the interactive processes. Analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the traditional model. Concludes with general remarks on the state of IR interaction research. (Author/AEF)

Discussion of the selection of search terms during an online search involving users and intermediaries focuses on a study that investigated at what stage of the search process search terms from different sources were selected, how terms were connected with retrieval of relevant answers, and the sequences in which terms were selected. (Contains 16…

Focuses on the retrieval of numeric data from information sources that present special challenges. Describes a new method to deal with the challenge of accessing this special type of data indexed by unfamiliar metadata vocabularies. Extends the entry vocabulary module (EVM) approach to deal with numeric database searching. (AEF)

Discusses the shortcomings of present online catalogs and some concepts and implementations for hypercatalogs. A prototype for a hypertext-based library catalog, HyperKGB, is described and its design principles and functionality are outlined. (Author/AEF)

Discusses a study in progress that is analyzing retrieval failures in two full-text computer-assisted legal research (CALR) systems, LEXIS and WESTLAW. Computer searching by experts is compared with manual searching by experts, examples are given, and a taxonomy of causes of retrieval failure is discussed. (13 references) (LRW)

Explores the question of quality links within the hyper-networked structure of information on the Web by surveying documents selected from the sites of the Alexandria Project, CNET, the Library of Congress and the National Information Standards Organization. Quality was measured by exhaustivity and specificity. (Author/AEF)

Reports the results of part one of a multi-faceted research project investigating children's information-seeking behavior in using World Wide Web search engines, with reference to Yahooligans. Examines search processes, patterns of exploration of returned results, success in finding/retrieving relevant information, persistence in finding…

Describes a model of information seeking/retrieval in which the user's quest is seen as a generalized abstract "response function" representing the user's response to the information delivered by the system. The concept of an information quest, "Q," is illustrated with data collected in the Ant World Project at Rutgers…

Examines the bibliometrics of the World Wide Web based on analysis of Web pages collected by the Inktomi "Web Crawler" and on the use of the DEC AltaVista search engine for cocitation analysis of a set of Earth Science related Web sites. Looks at the statistical characteristics of Web documents and their hypertext links, and the…

Describes a model of information retrieval as social interaction, which distinguishes between three types of information interaction goals: (1) task-oriented; (2) topically oriented; and (3) those centered around situation assessment (SA). Results suggest that SA is an important cognitive activity in new information retrieval environments; SA…

Discusses indexing and retrieval for effective searches of digitized images. Reports on an empirical study about criteria for analysis and indexing digitized images, and the different types of user queries done in newspaper image archives in Denmark. Concludes that it is necessary that the indexing represent both a factual and an expressional…

Describes a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that analyzed the transaction logs of medical students' searches of a factual database to determine the overall frequency of search moves, the interaction between the problem statement and students' search strategies, the search moves selected, and the tactics used by students.…