Describes the history and current status of bibliographic control in Japanese libraries, including the necessity for standardizing the combination of Japanese phonetic script and Chinese characters. The results of a survey of bibliographic activities and library automation are presented, and a developing plan to establish Japanese bibliographic…

Reports the design, methodology, and results of a research project which examined the effectiveness of bibliographic displays produced by online catalogs. A means of testing displays against several hundred thousand records at a reasonable cost and using that to test several display possibilities is described. (CLB)

Proposes a rationale to be used in comparing and evaluating alternative library computer catalogs, based on varieties of bibliographic data processed, kinds of indexes constructed, and desired search strategies. A glossary of terms related to computerized catalogs is appended. (Author/CLB)

Describes Vannevar Bush's vision of memex, a mechanized private file and library, and suggests that the ability of users to download library online catalogs and manage the information on personal computers will realize Bush's vision. Current software packages are described, and the possible implications for libraries are explored. (CLB)

This investigation of the effects of age, gender, college status, and computer experience on students' attitudes toward an online catalog measured student attitudes on three subscales--computer anxiety, computer confidence, and computer liking. Results of analysis of variance showed that computer experience was significantly related to computer…

Describes problems in the current state of library automation, including too much jargon, excessive costs, excessive implementation time, and systems that don't work. An example is given of one public library's conservative approach to library automation which husbands resources for the maintenance and expansion of print collections and…

Developed by Unesco in 1984 for non-library agencies, the Common Communication Format (CCF), offers a simple basis for machine readable bibliographic data for developing nations. Unlike MARC, CCF specifies no rules for description, permitting minimal records; and groups of fields called record segments permit relationships between fields and…

Precoordination of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), in both the LCSH thesaurus and online public access catalog (OPAC) browse displays, continues to be necessary for several reasons: (1) the meaning of thousands of LCSH headings depends on their word order in ways that cannot be captured by postcoordinate Boolean combinations or by…

Presents a cognitive model that provides a user-centered perspective of the information retrieval process and confirms the problematic nature of online library catalogs for children. Related research is reviewed, and it is concluded that developing children's thinking skills will help them search for information. (71 references) (Author/LRW)

Describes PACE (Public Access Catalogue Extension), an alternative interface designed to enhance online catalogs by simulating images of books and library shelves to help users browse through the catalog. Results of a test in a college library against a text-based online public access catalog, including student attitudes, are described.…

Explores the influence of several search task characteristics on children's success in finding science materials on an automated library catalog. Findings suggest that the complexity of the search task and the level of children's science domain knowledge affect their success in identifying books on assigned science topics. (Author/AEF)

Describes the basic elements of instructional design: (1) assessing needs; (2) defining goals; (3) selecting formats and materials; (4) devising test and evaluation procedures; (5) constructing and teaching a prototype; (6) analyzing and evaluating the results; and (7) revising the instruction and recycling. Demonstrates integration of online…

Describes four major types of learning theories (behavioral, cognitive, cybernetic, and andragogical); examines pertinent literature for each; and traces links between the literature of learning theory and that of the design of online public access catalog instructional systems. (32 references) (Author/CLB)

Discusses the possible use of computer technology to enable collection development librarians to become active participants in an information network as librarians move from the concept of ownership of resources to access to information, and describes the functions and benefits of the implementation of a microcomputer-based selector's workstation.…

The first of two articles discusses the advantages of online subject searching, the recall and precision tradeoff, and possible future developments in electronic searching. The second reviews the experiences of academic libraries that offer online searching of bibliographic, full text, and statistical databases in addition to online catalogs. (CLB)