This editorial addresses the issue of whether or not to provide free-text, keyword/boolean search capabilities in the information retrieval mechanisms of online public access catalogs and discusses online catalogs developed prior to 1980--keyword searching, phrase searching, and precoordination and postcoordination. (EJS)

Presents results of a study that examined the effectiveness of adjacency operators in improving precision and recall in FirstSearch title keyword searches. Compared subject headings of retrieved items to sample title subject headings and discovered that when keywords were limited in meaning and adjacency operators were used, precision was…

Describes a study that examined the ability of the dBase database management system to perform secondary key retrieval on multivalued data items. The results are presented as time cost relative to the number of matching records, and situations in which a different management system might be appropriate are identified. (CLB)

Discussion of improving subject access in online library catalogs focuses on a study that used a book description from "Book Review Digest" to evaluate the information on the bibliographic record found on the OCLC database. Matching by Library of Congress Subject Headings and by keywords in the title are discussed. (22 references) (LRW)

Review of the literature on international computerized indexing systems for visual materials also describes technologies available for reproducing images, highlighting videotex, videodisk, and digital storage. Advances in the ability to interface these technologies with each other and with online retrieval systems are discussed. (76 notes with…

Explores the potential usefulness of the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system as a tool in online retrieval. Unique features of LCC are described and a theoretical analysis of its potentials and limitations in terms of subject browsing, enhanced vocabulary, and class number searching are presented. (CDD)

Describes a study that examined the search behavior of remote users of the University of California MELVYL online public access catalog by analyzing the transaction logs. Highlights include the number of searches, databases searched, number of retrievals, constructing search commands, problems with search terms, and effectiveness of searches.…

This article studies the performance of online catalog user queries involving personal names and recommends system improvements based on the results. It examines various personal name queries, the construction of bibliographic data, and subject headings. Testing done on an experimental online catalog found search tree designs to reduce system…