Examines use of the World Wide Web on public-access computers at the American University Library (Washington, D.C.) to identify the most frequently accessed Web sites, the frequency with which library-owned Web resources were accessed, and Web-usage patterns in the library in relation to the time of day and day of the week. (Author/AEF)

Examines whether the results obtained from a specific bibliographic search can be applied to a real search environment and enhance the level of utility of an information retrieval session for all levels of users. Focuses on a Web-based Bibliometric Information Retrieval System (BIRS), designed with facilities to assist users in getting a better…

The method described permits visual analysis of information retrieval (IR) experiment results in classic control and treatment group protocols. It is an additional analysis technique for the evaluation of IR procedures that may be conducted within the rich terrain of human visual acuity, supported by two well-known statistical measures. (Contains…

An empirical investigation of information retrieval using the MEDLINE database was carried out to study user behavior, performance and to investigate the reasons for suboptimal searches. Subjects were two groups of final year medical students (novice and expert users of the search system). Findings indicate that just one factor can cause poor…

Provides preliminary results from a study of mediated information retrieval at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) based on data from 121 information seekers who requested mediated searches. Focuses on results related to the relationship between participants' gender, cognitive styles, and information seeking behaviors. (Contains 21…

This study analyzed how students' problem stages in writing the research proposal for a master's thesis are reflected in their choice of sources and access points to documents as well as in contributory information types in documents. Explores how the access points are related to document relevance. (Contains 21 references.) (Author/LRW)

Describes cognitive and affective characteristics of children and teenagers that may affect their Web searching behavior. Reviews literature on children's searching in online public access catalogs (OPACs) and using digital libraries. Profiles two Web search engines. Discusses some of the difficulties children have searching the Web, in the…

Discusses ways to improve and standardize intellectual access to electronically published historical documents. Highlights include metadata; information retrieval; the need for user studies; the need to assess implications for change in publication management; and the need to compare empirically various technological approaches to access to…

Explores ways that information professionals can help to "bring content to the table" and expand their role with these new technologies and with Management Information Systems departments in organizations. Discusses metadata, search engines, and information retrieval agents. Presents experiences of an information professional working in…

Computer vision offers a variety of techniques for searching for pictures in large collections of images. Appearance methods compare images based on the overall content of the image using certain criteria. Finding methods concentrate on matching subparts of images, defined in a variety of ways, in hope of finding particular objects. These ideas…

The MARIE project explores knowledge-based information retrieval of captioned images of the kind found in picture libraries and on the Internet. MARIE's five-part approach exploits the idea that images are easier to understand with context, especially descriptive text near them, but it also does image analysis. Experiments show MARIE prototypes…

Examines the relationship between information science and information-systems (IS) research through analysis of the subject literature of each field and by citation and co-citation analysis of highly cited researchers in each field. Subfields of user studies and information-retrieval research were selected to represent information-science…

Presents a broad view of information access, drawing from philosophy and semiology in constructing a framework for comparative discussion that is used to examine the information representations that underlie four approaches to information access--information retrieval, workflow, collaborative filtering, and the path model. Contains 32 references.…

Reviews several mechanisms to support navigation in hypertext following a brief discussion of the phenomena of disorientation in hyperspace. Categorizes ways to support navigation in terms of the following: solutions regarding the tools to support navigation; solutions regarding interface and navigation metaphors; and solutions regarding hardware…

The three basic models of full text are: publisher-supplied; third-party, or aggregator-supplied; and distributed, "linked," in which a bibliographic database provider links to (usually) publisher-supplied full text. This article looks at each model in detail, with particular emphasis on the challenges they face. A clear understanding of…