Today's scholars face an outstanding array of choices when choosing search tools: Google Scholar, discipline-specific abstracts and index databases, library discovery tools, and more recently, Microsoft's re-launch of their academic search tool, now dubbed Microsoft Academic Search. What are these tools' strengths for the emerging needs of…

Reference services in public libraries are changing dramatically. The Internet, online databases, and shrinking budgets are all making it necessary for non-traditional reference staff to become familiar with online reference tools. Recognizing the need for cross-training, Chesapeake Public Library (CPL) developed a program called the Database…

Do library catalogs compete with Google or is it the other way around? We know which came first but which will finish in the end? Only trained library professionals were considered qualified to develop reliable catalog records. However, with the increased sophistication of search engines, we are beginning to realize that a collaborative effort may…

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a quantitative analysis exploring the interaction and relationship between the online database and electronic journal collections at the J. N. Desmarais Library of Laurentian University. A very strong relationship exists between the number of searches and the size of the online database…

Libraries are not so unlike market giants Netflix, Amazon, and Pandora. Despite their significantly different business models and missions, they share an interest in facilitating the search for information, including what to read, view, and listen to next. Librarians, too, want their patrons to be able to use their tools to make connections among…

Papers presented at an August 1984 international seminar on online user education include "Library Policies and Strategies in The Netherlands" (Chris J. van Wijk, The Netherlands); "Promotion and Marketing of Library Services" (Nancy Fjallbrant, Sweden); "Library Promotion by Computer" (Ian Malley, United Kingdom); "Library User Education and…

Compares two natural language processing search engines, WIN (WESTLAW Is Natural) and FREESTYLE, developed by LEXIS. Legal issues in natural language queries were presented to identical libraries in both systems. Results showed that the editorials enhanced relevance; a search would be more thorough using both databases; and if only one system were…

With the advent of CD-ROMs, libraries began to limit online searching via DIALOG. To increase DIALOG's market share, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) Corporation is developing graphical user interfaces using World Wide Web and Windows technology and has reached agreements with Knight Ridder Information and with most of their database…

This series of ten articles exploring users' reactions to optical data disk technologies, focuses on comparisons with online retrieval systems. The opinions of users and vendors on cost effectiveness, searchability, equipment requirements and performance, effectiveness, and efficiency are presented and discussed. (CLB)

Presents abstracts of 36 special interest group (SIG) sessions. Highlights include the Chemistry Online Retrieval Experiment; organizing and retrieving images; intelligent information retrieval using natural language processing; interdisciplinarity; libraries as publishers; indexing hypermedia; cognitive aspects of classification; computer-aided…

This book outlines computing and information science from the perspective of what librarians and educators need to do with computer technology and how it can help them perform their jobs more efficiently. It provides practical explanations and library applications for non-technical users of desktop computers and other library automation tools.…

The virtual Canadian union catalog (vCuc) project is a project among Canadian libraries to use Z39.50 (an information protocol standard) for searching distributed individual library catalogs and union catalogs. This paper summarizes the major technical, vendor, bibliographic data, and administrative issues that must be resolved before the…