Introduction: Use of the Internet for open Web searches is common among university students in academic learning tasks. The tools used by students to find relevant information for online assessment tasks were investigated and their information seeking behaviour was documented to explore the impact on assessment design. Method: A mixed methods…

PubMed® is an on-line literature database hosted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Containing over 21 million citations for biomedical literature--both abstracts and full text--in the areas of the life sciences, behavioral studies, chemistry, and bioengineering, PubMed® represents an important tool for researchers. PubMed® searches return…

In recent years, tags have become a standard feature on a diverse range of sites on the Web, accompanying blog posts, photos, videos, and online news stories. Tags are descriptive terms attached to Internet resources. Despite the rapid adoption of tagging, how people use tags during the search process is not well understood. There is little…

Using data gathered from 54 evaluation forms and 18 recorded interviews, this study focused on in-person users of the MEDLINE system at three search sites to determine the relationship between presearch interviews and user assessments of precision and concern for recall in online searches, and to determine differences in assessment characteristics…

This paper reports on a study of the development of information searching expertise by 12 postgraduate research students. Six of the students were studying education, and six were studying engineering. The paper focuses on the students' perception of the importance of searching skills and the growth of their knowledge with these skills as they…

Discusses methods for designing search strategies for maximum recall, including minimizing the number of concepts intersected, isolating key subtopics, adapting the strategy to the database, and minimizing problems with search words and codes. (Author/RAA)

Provides excerpts from interviews with expert online searchers to be published in a book entitled "Secrets of the Super Searchers" in the fall of 1993. Planning search strategies is the focus; and topics addressed include methods of planning searches, broad versus narrow searches, and building with component parts. (EAM)

Assesses the adequacy of Robert S. Taylor's model of question formulation in the context of online presearch interviews, and presents an altered model which introduces the bearers of needs and makes distinctions about those needs as isolated or negotiated events in the interviews. Thirty-three references are listed. (FM)

This codebook clarifies the variables used in a study analyzing the verbal behaviors of search intermediaries and library users requesting online bibliographic searches. Gathering data on 80 presearch interviews in seven medical libraries, the study was conducted (1) to identify verbal and nonverbal behaviors that facilitate, maintain, or impede…

This analysis of tasks that search intermediaries performed to facilitate information exchange in presearch interviews with requesters of computer-based literature searches was part of a larger study that gathered data on 80 presearch interviews in seven medical libraries. The study also sought to identify verbal and nonverbal behaviors that…

Describes an inductive, qualitative study of 30 Syracuse University students that investigated the situated nature of action during interactions with an online public access catalog. Highlights include elements of situatedness, with examples; the mapping of individual searches; and users' goals and stopping behavior. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of online searching focuses on the first three of seven stages of searching: (1) the reference interview, including user needs, the search request, and the user's expectations; (2) the tactical overview, including institutional control and cost and time factors; and (3) database selection considerations, including relevance,…

Using the ERIC/ONTAP file, student searchers may improve their online skills by employing an 8-step search strategy technique. ERIC/ONTAP, now available through LRS/DIALOG, uses a subset of the ERIC file with built-in answer sets and a special evaluation command. The training procedure guides the student from the initial search interview to the…

Using data bases of the DIALOG system new teaching techniques and materials are presented to an audience of library educators. Included are search demonstrations, teaching approaches, sample exercises and instructional prolects, multidatabase searching methods, utilization of search aids and offline resources, the conduct of presearch interviews,…

Developed to orient the information seeker to the computerized literature search process, this guide provides background information that will help the user facilitate the search interview and the formation of a search topic, enabling him or her to focus on personal search needs and not on the fundamentals of online searching. Major purposes for…