From a log of 1,025,910 Excite users' queries, 116,050 sexually related queries were extracted. Findings indicated that in many aspects, sexual and non-sexually-related queries exhibit significant differences in terms of duration of the session, analysis of the results of each query, and search term usage. (AEF)

Elicitations study during 40 mediated information retrieval (IR) interactions identified 1557 search intermediary elicitations within 15 purpose categories (requests for information on search terms and strategies, database selection, search procedures, system's outputs and relevance of retrieved items, and users' knowledge and previous…

Discusses results from recent relevance research with implications for information professionals. The studies show that beyond the usual concern with high relevance and non-relevance judgments, partially relevant judgments by users are important. Calls for the adoption of a more complex view of human relevance judgments in the education and…

Examines the information use environment--information needs and behaviors--of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Discusses a method for more effectively disseminating information throughout the campus, as well as implications for the development of information seeking models and a model of the NPS information environment. (AEF)

Reports findings from a study of searching behavior by over 200,000 users of the Excite search engine. Analysis of over one million queries revealed most people use few search terms, few modified queries, view few Web pages, and rarely use advanced search features. Concludes that Web searching by the public differs significantly from searching of…

Includes four articles that discuss a conceptual framework for open and context-sensitive reference linking for Web-based scholarly information; issues for academic libraries due to increased use of information and communication technologies; the future of electronic books in academic libraries; and an academic library user study on the needs for…

Results from three studies examining 1295 relevance judgments by 36 information retrieval (IR) system end-users are reported. Both the region of the relevance judgments, from non-relevant to highly relevant, and motivations or levels for the relevance judgments are examined. Implications for relevance theory and IR systems evaluation are…

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…