Acquaints information professionals with Digital Equipment Corporation's compact optical disk read-only-memory (CDROM) search and retrieval software and growing library of CDROM database publications (COMPENDEX, Chemical Abstracts Services). Highlights include MicroBASIS, boolean operators, range operators, word and phrase searching, proximity…

Users of the World Wide Web have recognized the need for better search strategies and mechanisms. This article discusses the Educom NLII Instructional Management System (IMS) Project specifications and Java-based software for metadata that will provide information about Web-based materials not currently obtainable with traditional search engines.…

A new search feature has been developed and implemented to enhance online information retrieval from the ABI/INFORM database, which includes abstracts from more than 500 journals covering all aspects of business and management. Published by Data Courier Inc., it includes material dating back to 1971. Because of the diverse nature of the database…

Provides overview of design requirements for transparent information retrieval (implies that user sees through complexity of retrieval activities sequence). Highlights include need for transparent systems; history of transparent retrieval research; information retrieval functions (automated converters, routers, selectors, evaluators/analyzers);…

Discusses the importance of machine-readable data files (MRDF) in social sciences reference exchange and provides examples of their use in typical library settings. Access to and available MRDF are described. Nine references are included. (EJS)

This paper reports on an application of parallel models to the area of information retrieval and argues that massively parallel, distributed models of computation, called connectionist, or parallel distributed processing (PDP) models, offer a new approach to the representation and manipulation of knowledge. Although this document focuses on…

Explains rationale behind proposed voluntary U.S. standard computerized library catalog called the "Uniform Catalog." Design goals (should mimic manual card catalog, offer simplicity of operation and low overhead, permit modular growth to more advanced catalog), sample search, and nine commands and functions used by "Uniform…

Describes three commercial, numeric databases that are available in microcomputer diskette format: Micro/Scan Disclosure; Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates World Economic Service; and Trinet's Survey of Commercial Buying Power. Advantages and disadvantages of the diskette format, search strategies, and a selected list of eight suppliers…

Description of the computerized information system that supports the editorial and manufacturing processes involved in creation of Wilson's subject indexes and catalogs includes the major subsystems--online data entry, batch input processing, validation and release, file generation and database management, online and offline retrieval, publication…

Discusses technology used to preserve, control, index, and retrieve information in newspapers, highlighting ways to record analyses of news stories, storage/indexing systems based on computers, information as salable commodity, preparation of news for electronic storage, answering in-house queries, questions of copyright and invasion of privacy,…

Reviews the history, current applications, and future of hypertext. Topics covered include current prototype applications, limitations of hypertext, and its possible impact on libraries. Hypertext-related definitions and a list of current hypertext systems and developers are provided. (12 references) (CLB)

Response time in large, inverted file document retrieval systems is determined by time required to access files of document identifiers on disk and process a Boolean search request. A specialized computer system has been devised that can perform a complicated sample search involving 70 terms and over 60,000 document references 12 to 60 times…

Summarizes the growth of databases, including major milestones, issues, and trends of the past 20 years, during which time the database/online industry had become a large and thriving segment of the information industry. A time line overview of database developments from 1951 to 1985 is appended. (42 references) (EJS)

Reprints of 17 articles presenting strategies and tips for searching databases online appear in this collection, which is one in a series of volumes of reprints from "ONLINE" and "DATABASE" magazines. Edited for information professionals who use electronically distributed databases, these articles address such topics as: (1)…

Explores aspects of information retrieval skills such as end user training, indexing, controlled vocabulary systems, search protocol, boolean logic, problem analysis, and decision making. Suggests techniques for classroom instruction using simulations of online databases, CD-ROMs, and DIALOG's classroom instruction program. Describes several…