Discusses topics related to use of search trees to enhance subject searching in online catalogs: subject searching in existing systems; search trees defined; highlights of a study of subject queries; normalized subject headings; the exact approach to subject searching; one-word queries; multiword queries; queries failing to produce retrievals; and…

Describes results of a study of transaction logs from three university libraries' online catalogs that analyzed subject queries to determine the extent to which they matched subject headings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Computer and manual analyses are described, and user satisfaction with LCSH matches is considered. (14…

Discussion of difficulties in finding tests and measuring instruments for academic library users focuses on electronic databases. Highlights include the Educational Testing Service collection; eight databases for finding measures; Internet access to databases; other national and local databases; print sources of measures; and obtaining copies of…

Developed at the beginning of the decade to serve as a union catalog for identifying the holdings in all University of California (UC) libraries, the MELVYL online catalog as of October 1989 contained 10 million holdings for over 5 million monographic titles of print and nonprint materials, and more than 1.2 million periodicals holdings which…

Researchers studying subject searching distributed an online questionnaire to users who access the University of California's online public access catalog, MELVYL, from public access terminals in the libraries of the University of California at Santa Cruz. This article discusses the results of transaction log analysis, comparison of in-library and…

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)

Three problems in online searching in women's studies are type of indexing, database quality, and adequacy of coverage. Results of a recent study show there is significant end-user satisfaction and the searches done are described in order to promote greater and more effective use of online retrieval in women's studies. (Author/EM)

Summarizes the literature on users studies from the perspective that variation in type of search may be considered central to providing a rational explanation and justification of the variations in resource allocation in different types of libraries. (CWM)

This research study addressed four issues relating to subject searching in online catalogs: faculty and student use of subject searching in library catalogs; users' knowledge of and use of the Library of Congress Subject Headings List (LCSH) in a controlled subject heading search; strategies for teaching effective subject searching; and users'…

A survey at the University of Houston examined factors related to subject searching success in online catalogs, including: extent of subject searching; response to unsuccessful searches; reasons subject search is not used; users' awareness of sources of subject terms; and suggestions from users for improving subject searching capabilities. (CLB)

Describes a study of library users' search strategies which focused on the extent of subject searching activity when using bibliographic tools and shelf browsing. The use of the results to evaluate the impact of a future online catalog on search behaviors is discussed. (23 references) (CLB)

Discussion of academic library online catalog users' queries highlights a new approach to displaying retrieved subject headings in subject searching, the exact-display approach, that was designed to encourage users to browse bibliographic information. Demonstrates an implementation of the exact-display approach in an experimental online catalog.…

Describes a project intended to improve subject access in an online catalog by adding multiword terms from the table of contents and index to MARC records for each book. The discussion covers a preliminary evaluation of the impact on workload, resources, and subject access to information. (seven references) (Author/CLB)

Describes a study that investigated search intermediaries' requests for information from patrons during mediated online searching in an academic library. Topics of search intermediaries' elicitations include search terms and strategies, database selection, relevance of retrieved items, patrons' knowledge and previous information seeking, and other…

Expected Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) and assigned LCSHs for 161 books requested by faculty in sociology, anthropology, and social work were compared to gauge the likely success of an online subject catalog search for those works. For 80% of the titles checked, inspection of the ninth edition of "Library of Congress Subject…