What began with a few libraries' early application of ethnographic methods to learn more about user behaviors and needs has grown to become a significant body of work done across many institutions using a broad range of methods. User-centered investigations are increasingly influential in discussions about the shape and future of the research…

Although information has become increasingly prevalent in young people's lives, minimal research has addressed children's attitudes to the word itself. This paper scrutinizes questionnaire-based data to explore how 45 eight- to ten-year-old Canadians understood the term. "Information" was often considered to be material that met a need,…

Presents a model for the geometric analysis of the relationship between information queries and information systems retrieval, and demonstrates the utility of this analysis by its application to six conventional information retrieval similarity measures and a seventh spreading activation measure. (Author/CLB)

Designed to minimize information overload in telecommunications systems, the formal model developed in this paper predicts the usefulness of a message based on the available message features, and may be used to rank messages by expected importance or economic worth. The assumptions of binary and two Poisson independent probabilistic distributions…

Explains a new methodology for thesaurus design that is specifically geared for use by novice end-users, and describes a faceted hierarchical thesaurus organization which provides an economical information retrieval system in a corporate setting. (Author/LRW)

This exploration of reasons why historians do not take full advantage of government publications as sources of historical materials focuses on the difficulty of accessing information under current classification and indexing schemes. (CLB)

A study of the information world of custodial workers at a large university in the South revealed: (1) information needs in the areas of health, career opportunities, and interpersonal relationships; (2) little information exchange among workers; and (3) little use of the public library. The interview schedule is appended. (51 references) (MES)

Two articles describe a model for processing natural-language queries in information retrieval systems. Part I proposes a language interface based on fuzzy set techniques to handle the uncertainty inherent in natural-language semantics. Part II develops a model of the retrieval system and describes an implementation using a knowledge-based systems…

Summarizes earlier research in the theory of information flow and its application to practical situations and to the relationship between information and the user's knowledge state. A model for creating information profiles is presented which mathematically represents changes in decision making effectiveness as a function of specific documents.…

Research on two exposure techniques--book displays and book lists--supports the idea that browsers need, want, and will use some type of guidance to narrow their book selection. Two reasons for this are given: these techniques require little patron effort and reach large numbers of browsers at one time. (Author/EM)

Develops an approach for advance estimation of user charges based on information actually retrieved by searching numeric databases, and defines a method for query cardinality estimation. Based on the relational data model, which uses relational algebra, this method uses formal file descriptions to describe the database files. (LRW)

Discussion of the online information industry emphasizes the effects of non-price competition on its structure and the firms involved. Q-analysis is applied to data on medical databases and hosts, changes over a three-year period are identified, and an optimum structure for the industry based on economic theory is considered. (Author/LRW)

Discusses possibility of using expert systems to develop new model in cataloging theory made necessary by technological progress, rising user expectations, and economic pressures. A data structure for bibliographic information required by Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, (AACR2) is suggested, and possible heuristics for interpreting…

Describes CANSEARCH, an intermediary computer system incorporating fundamental features of the expert systems approach. Designed to provide access to information on cancer therapy in the MEDLINE database for doctors with no experience in document retrieval, search strategies are explained and menu selection from a touch terminal is illustrated.…

One of the aims of the Women's Studies Program at Michigan State University (East Lansing) is to augment undergraduate major programs by introducing the experiences of women into the various disciplines and involving students in inter-disciplinary studies. The College of Arts and Letters (ATL) offers a special topic course called "Women in…