Discusses the need for knowledge gateway systems to provide access to scattered information and the use of technologies in gateway building, including artificial intelligence and expert systems, networking, online retrieval systems, optical storage, and natural language processing. The status of four existing gateways is described. (20 references)…

In the first of three articles, the producer of Energyline, Energynet, and Tele/Scope recalls the development of the databases and database business strategies. The second describes the development of biomedical online databases, and the third discusses future developments, including full text databases, database producers as online host, and…

Built using a distributed architecture, this prototype distributed information retrieval system uses statistical ranking techniques to provide better service to the end user. Distributed architecture was shown to be a feasible alternative to centralized or CD-ROM information retrieval, and user testing of the ranking methodology showed both…

Five papers discuss factors affecting human interactions with online information systems. Topics covered include the use of discourse analysis for interaction functions specification; the impact of optical data disks; the need for research into the search process; user access to data dictionaries; and the development of full text systems. (CLB)

To learn first hand how the libraries of North Carolina, especially public libraries, function in spite of budget cuts, a hearing was held in Lumberton (North Carolina) to hear the testimony of interested parties from the state and national levels and specifically from the congressional district of southeastern North Carolina. While library…