Summarizes findings from a survey administered to identify indexer opinion of the PRECIS indexing language, notes advantages and disadvantages, and discusses PRECIS's impact on the British library community. (SW)

This study examines possibility of ranking journals in physics by means of bibliometric regression models that estimate usefulness as it is reported by 167 physicists in United States and Canada. Development of four models, patterns of deviation from models, and validity and application are discussed. Twenty-six references are cited. (EJS)

Examines the concepts involved in user studies, information needs, and information seeking behavior to propose a basis and direction for future research in information science. Twenty-eight references are listed. (RAA)

Information needs are defined in relation to conceptual incongruities and the satisfaction of such needs is discussed in terms of access to varying ranges of information sources, from individual learning resources to large-scale databases. (Author/SW)

Discusses information retrieval techniques involving both Boolean retrieval schemes and a weighting mechanism to produce ranked search output and points out theoretical ambiguities and inconsistencies demonstrated by recent research. An alternative search approach is outlined and analyzed and a more rigorous methodology is suggested. Eleven…

Outlines the history of the application of photographic and allied printing methods in libraries during the past 50 years. The benefits of reprints and micropublications to libraries and users are discussed, and the possible impact of computer output microfilm is examined. (19 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes a technique for automatic reformulation of Boolean queries which compares favorably with feedback as employed in a SMART system. Using patron relevance judgments, prevalence measures reflecting term distribution in relevant and nonrelevant documents are derived to guide the construction of a Boolean query for a subsequent retrieval.…

Describes quantitative and qualitative research that investigated students' perceptions of the library service at the University of Sussex (England). Highlights include results of a user survey regarding the reserve collection, user interviews and the software package used to analyze them, and types of student searching. (Author/LRW)

Reports intensive survey of medical library users in Oxford teaching hospitals and university science departments that employed six survey techniques (interview, questionnaire, feedback form, direct observation, reference-tracing experiment, library record analysis). Three distinct user types (practitioner, researcher, practitioner-researcher)…

Data on 2,380 searches of online information retrieval systems are analyzed using a mathematical model to determine the relationship between two measures of effectiveness--documents read and relevant references. The nature and relative merits of these two variables are discussed, as well as the findings, and seven references are listed. (RBF)

Describes evaluation of an automatic query expansion (AQE) facility in the Okapi System, an online library catalog at City University in London (England). Results of transaction log analysis, search replays, questionnaires, and interviews are presented; and findings are discussed which indicate that AQE was beneficial in many searches. (12…

Reports results of a nationwide survey of the United Kingdom public's citizenship information needs (in relation to national and local government issues and for survival information). A second survey examined further the concept of the "well-informed" and active citizen, and attitudes toward the uptake and use of information and…

Presents results of a survey of patient information needs and satisfaction levels in a large hospital in the United Kingdom as part of a feasibility study on the provision of a patient information service. Topics discussed include changes in the patient/doctor relationship; gender differences; and verbal versus written information. (Contains 20…

This analysis of metaphors relating to libraries in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" found that (1) administrators view libraries as contributors to the social structure of an academic environment; (2) faculty regard libraries as the repository for physical information resources to support their research; and (3) librarians attribute…