Reports findings from a study examining the nature of queries submitted to Ask Jeeves-a publicly accessible question and answer search engine. Some 30,000 queries from a dataset of 800,000, or 3.75%, were analyzed. Results include: many queries not in question format; four types of user queries: keyword, Boolean, question, and request; and common…

Examines whether the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) could enhance retrieval during individual name searching of humanities databases. Results demonstrate that the LCNAF has utility in name searching of humanities databases, and it could provide the humanities scholar and search intermediary with authoritative information about the…

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)

Findings from three separate studies of relevance judgments by 44 initial online search users were examined. Results show that, for users conducting their initial search on a particular information problem, the number of items judged "partially" relevant, not item judged "highly" relevant, were positively correlated with important changes in…

Examines visual information needs as expressed in users' Web image queries; the data set consisted of 1,025,908 sequential queries from 211,058 users of EXCITE, a major Internet search service. Provides data on: image queries, image search sessions, and image terms. Discusses implications for the development of models for visual information…

Investigates the importance of book reviews to science and technology scholars and humanities and social science scholars. Focuses on the sources, importance, and utility of book reviews for information seeking; research by scholars and scholars' criteria for useful book reviews; and whether scholars use electronic book reviews. (Author/AEF)

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…

Reports findings from a study investigating the information seeking and information needs of low income African American households in Dallas, Texas. Three hundred households were surveyed; results show information seeking behavior, particularly with regard to employment, health, news, and security issues. (Author/AEF)

Explores a user-centered approach to evaluating the Web search engine Inquirus. Inquirus was rated highly by users on various usability measures; all users experienced some level of shift/change in their information problem, information seeking, and personal knowledge due to their Inquirus interaction; and different users experienced different…

Investigates the regions across a distribution of users' relevance judgments. A multidimensional instrument was designed using four scales for collecting, measuring, and describing end-user relevance judgments, and was administered to 21 end-users who conducted searches on their own information problems and made relevance judgments on a total of…

Proposes a useful concept of relevance as a relationship and an effect on the movement of a user through the iterative stages of their information seeking process, and that users' relevance judgments can be plotted on a Three-Dimensional Spatial Model of Relevance Level, Degree and Time. Discusses implications for the development of information…