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)

A microcomputer-based user interface was developed and programmed for the library computer systems at the University of Illinois. Designed to provide user-friendly access to the two components of the online catalog on the library's IBM 3081 mainframe computer, the interface program resides on the IBM PC and queries the user in natural written…

Describes the University of California at Berkeley's participation in the TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) interactive track experiments. Highlights include results of searches on two systems, Cheshire II and ZPRISE; system design goals and implementation; precision and recall results; search questions by topic and system; and results of…

Describes a study that examined subject searchers' use of a display of terms related to their topics as provided through online display of authority information from Library of Congress subject headings. The need to encourage searcher use of available syndetic structures is discussed. (17 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes a study that electronically monitored 11 public access terminals at the University of Colorado libraries to produce transaction logs that were used to gather statistics and analyze users' behavior when searching online catalogs. Implications for search instruction and systems design are suggested. (Contains 13 references.) (LRW)

Presents results of a survey of 10 vendors of microcomputer-based automated library systems. Directory information is provided for each vendor, as well as data on hardware requirements, system capabilities, and costs. (MES)

Describes an analysis of transaction logs of the online catalog at the University of Missouri-Kansas City that examined patron use of both controlled and uncontrolled vocabulary subject access during the same search session. Hypotheses tested are discussed, and recommendations are made for library instruction and online catalog design. (six…

This paper describes the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) guidelines for librarians charged with customizing OPAC (online public access catalog) software and vendors and producers of this software. The guidelines are intended to apply to all types of catalog, including World Wide Web-based catalogs, GUI…

What would it take for libraries to provide their patrons with the same kind of success in finding information using their resources as they achieve with Google, and as quickly? This author asserts that the answer is not that complicated: be more like Google, and then move beyond Google. With the technology available right now, this is not an…

E-Referencer is an expert intermediary system for searching library online public access catalogs (OPACs) on the World Wide Web. It is implemented as a proxy server that mediates the interaction between the user and Boolean OPACs. It transforms a Boolean OPAC into a retrieval system with many of the search capabilities of Web search engines.…

Describes the system architecture and user evaluation tools for Cheshire II, an online catalog and full-text information retrieval system being developed at the University of California, Berkeley, that uses advanced information retrieval techniques to overcome the problems of topical searching in online catalogs, search failure, and information…

Describes the design of a prototype adaptive online catalog that was implemented as a transparent workstation-based front end system to MELVYL, the online catalog for the University of California libraries. Problems with searching bibliographic retrieval systems are reviewed, including irrelevant retrievals and the inexperience of most users.…

Results are reported from a study that investigated the extent to which academic library end users conducted multiple search sessions with online public access catalogs or CD-ROM databases at different stages of their information seeking related to a research project. Implications for training, retrieval systems design, and further research are…