Recent technological developments related to the World Wide Web including mobile computing, social media, and online videos are shaping the way we learn. As argued in the present commentary, the majority of educational psychological research that has examined how individuals learn by searching the Web, however, has not kept up with this pace.…

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…

Six articles about evaluating information retrieval (IR) systems and methods are briefly described in this introduction to a special issue and some of the major problems that are encountered in evaluating interactive information retrieval are considered. (two references) (LAE)

Uses a reliability framework to examine the role that relevance judgments play in quantitative information retrieval (IR) performance measurement with an eye toward issues introduced by Internet IR. Argues that a theoretical basis for reliable measurement is possible if the relevance yardstick is reconsidered in light of recent research and if the…

A comparison of the effectiveness of information retrieval based on full-text documents with retrieval based on paragraphs, abstracts, or controlled vocabularies was accomplished using a subset of journal articles with nine search questions. It was found that full-text retrieval achieved significantly higher recall and lower precision than did the…

Examines end-user judgment and evaluation behavior during information retrieval (IR) system interactions and extends previous research surrounding relevance as a key construct for representing the value end-users ascribe to items retrieved from IR systems. The self-reporting worksheet is appended. (Author/AEF)

Discusses the concept of search failure in document retrieval systems and three effectiveness measures, precision, recall, and "fallout." Four research methods--retrieval effectiveness measures, user satisfaction measures, transaction log analysis, and critical incident technique--are examined, and findings of major studies using each of the…

Describes a study conducted at Oregon Health Sciences University that compared the use of three retrieval systems by medical students: a Boolean system, a word-based natural language system, and a concept-based natural language system. Results showed no statistically significant differences in recall, precision, or user preferences. (Author/LRW)

Discusses an experiment with the "Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors" which aimed to adapt established criteria for the evaluation of information retrieval systems to the assessment of searcher performance in online bibliographic searching. The concept of relevance is discussed, and the Cranfield paradigm for the evaluation of information…

This review of the literature on full-text databases provides information on search strategy, performance measurement, and the benefits and limitations of full text compared to bibliographic database searching. Various use studies and uses of full-text databases are also listed. (21 references) (LAE)

Three articles describe a series of observations and experiments that examined the user context of questions in information retrieval, the structure and classification of questions, cognitive traits and decision-making searchers, and different searches of the same question. (71 references) (Author/CLB)

Discussion of the appropriateness of evaluation criteria and measures for information retrieval focuses on a study that investigated the appropriateness of 20 measures, including precision and recall, for evaluating interactive information retrieval performance representing 4 major evaluation criteria. The importance of user satisfaction in…

An adaptation of a live workshop, this guide offers pertinent information and practical techniques for users to become proficient searchers and conscious evaluators of World Wide Web resources. The book does not provide comprehensive coverage of the Internet, rather it gives the exact amount and level of information needed to perform a successful…

Describes a study at Louisiana State University that described the criteria mentioned by users evaluating the information within documents as it related to the user's information need situation. Implications for understanding the concept of relevance, for the design and evaluation of information retrieval systems, and for future research are…

Describes a study that compared two information retrieval systems on a full-text medical database: one featured concept-based automatic indexing and statistical retrieval techniques, and the second used traditional word-based Boolean techniques. Evaluation of search results by calculating relative recall and precision is discussed, and user…