Describes a project at Carnegie Mellon University libraries to convert the congressional papers of the late Senator John Heinz to digital format and to create an online system to search and retrieve these papers. Highlights include scanning, optical character recognition, and a search engine utilizing natural language processing. (Author/LRW)

Monotonic logic requires reexamination of the entire logic string when there is a contradiction. Nonmonotonic logic allows the user to withdraw conclusions in the face of contradiction without harm to the logic string, which has considerable application to the field of information searching. Artificial intelligence models and neural networks based…

Reviews and analyzes selected Web sites that use standard library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies to enhance access to Web information sources. Profiles common elements of many sites and the structural and navigational approaches incorporated with select sites. Includes an appendix of sites that use standard classification…

Presents a comparison of collocation-based similarity measures for the proper selection of additional search terms in query expansion. Highlights include evaluating retrieval effectiveness in a vector space model, thesauri, document ranking, and experiments on two Korean test collections. (Author/LRW)

Describes a study that was conducted to determine whether bibliographic instruction methods used in an academic library's computer classroom were effective. Teacher-education students were tested using pretests and posttests designed to determine their knowledge and skill in using library technology to obtain research information. The tests are…

Describes WebACE, the architecture of a client-side agent that explores and classifies Web documents in clusters automatically and discusses the details of the algorithms within its key components. Highlights principal direction divisive partitioning (PDDP), a scalable hierarchical clustering algorithm; compares it to other clustering methods; and…

Examines bibliographic relationships within the context of a global bibliographic database. Results of this research indicate that a core of works of similar character constitute the bibliographic population of American academic and research libraries (OCLC, Online Computer Library Center members). The size of a bibliographic family seems to be…

Reports how a cross-section of database producers, search services, and aggregators are using vocabulary management to facilitate cross-file searching. Discusses the range of subject areas and audiences; indexing; vocabulary control within databases; machine aids to indexing; and aids to cross-file searching. A chart contains sources of files and…

Focuses on synthesis in research--the combination of thesis and antithesis in the dialectical process, producing a new and higher form of being. Discusses kinds of synthesis (unique communication, plan of operation, abstract relations); synthesizing information pieces; summary practice leading to synthesis; and questions of analysis and synthesis.…

Defines virtual documents and categorizes them, roughly, on how they are created, such as using templates, from computations, as composites, and as metadata. Describes the following information retrieval problems with virtual documents: search, revisiting, authentication, reference, version control, and annotation. (AEF)

Describes how online searchers can use a software tool based on back-of-the-book indexes to assist in dealing with search engine databases compiled by spiders that crawl across the entire Internet or through large Web sites. Discusses human versus machine knowledge, conversion of indexes to mind maps or mini-thesauri, middleware, eXtensible Markup…

Describes a technique for linking searches from the PsycLIT CD-ROM database with local journal holdings in a library. Explains the step-by-step methodology of the technique and covers major advantages and drawbacks of the new technique. (Author/AEF)

Describes wearable computers, or information and communication technology devices that are designed to be mobile. Discusses how such technologies can enhance computer-mediated communications, focusing on collaborative working for learning. Describes an experimental system, MetaPark, which explores communications, data retrieval and recording, and…

Describes the development, utilization and evaluation of an Internet training module for doctor of pharmacy students to introduce the use of e-mail and on-line searching for primary literature and patient information. Both traditional and nontraditional students agreed that the module was user-friendly and taught them to search primary literature…

Discussion of language barriers when using multilingual digital library collections on the Internet focuses on query translation and document translation in a Chinese-English information retrieval system called MTIR. Highlights include a bilingual dictionary; machine transliteration algorithm; design issues for document translation; HTML tags; and…