Describes a conceptual model of information retrieval. Includes a model of the Internet to help college students form mental models so they perceive information retrieval as a process and are able to decide when to use the Internet and to decide on suitable search strategies for different question types. (Author/LRW)

Discusses six principles of visual perception and their cognitive implications for interactive screen design: clear perception determines continuity and flow of information; perceptual grouping establishes screen sequencing; placement of information aids recall; distinctiveness increases retention and retrieval; consistency in the perception of…

As Information Retrieval (IR) has evolved, it has become a highly interactive process, rooted in cognitive and situational contexts. Consequently the traditional cybernetic-based IR model does not suffice for interactive IR or the human approach to IR. Reviews different views of feedback in IR and their relationship to cybernetic and social…

Librarians and information scientists have debated whether traditional cataloging methods can bring order to the Internet. Reviews literature on alternative strategies for organizing and accessing information resources on the Internet that incorporate some aspect of traditional library expertise, including library catalogs, subject trees,…

Discusses humanities projects that can be facilitated by communications technology: multiple language representations, providing cross-platform multilingual font sets and distributed multilingual enabling technologies; high-quality images and tools for archival image annotation, search, and retrieval; three-dimensional representations to provide…

Describes a study conducted at Jacksonville State University (Alabama) that compared the ERIC print index, "Resources in Education" (RIE), to the ERIC index in CD-ROM format. Accuracy of results, time savings, and user satisfaction are discussed, and copies of the questionnaire and survey are appended. (Author/LRW)

Reviews visualization techniques for scientific disciplines and information retrieval and classification. Highlights include historical background of scientometrics, bibliometrics, and citation analysis; map generation; process flow of visualizing knowledge domains; measures and similarity calculations; vector space model; factor analysis;…

Discusses lifelong learning and the need for information retrieval skills, and describes how Northwest Missouri State University incorporates a heuristic model of library instruction in which students continually evaluate and refine information-seeking practices while progressing through all levels of courses in diverse disciplines. (Author/LRW)

Presents guidelines for selecting World Wide Web search engines. Real-life questions were used to test six search engines. Queries sought company information, product reviews, medical information, foreign information, technical reports, and current events. Compares performance and features of AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, and Open…

Explores the evaluation of image and multimedia information-retrieval systems, particularly the effectiveness of several shape measures for content-based retrieval of similar images. Shape feature measures, or vectors, are computed automatically and can either be used for retrieval or stored in the database for future queries. (57 references)…

Discusses the use of the Z39.50 standard for information retrieval in the British Library's efforts toward networked information retrieval and online public access catalogs in cooperation with the European Union and other countries. OSI (open systems interconnection) and project ONE (a collaborative project in the European Union) are explained.…

Results from an analysis of 1,025,010 Excite queries from 2001 are compared to similar Excite datasets from 1997 to 1999. Overall, results indicate that multimedia Web searching is undergoing major changes as Web content and searching evolves. (AEF)

With "Chemical Abstracts" and "Science Citation Index" both now available for citation searching, this study compares the duplication and uniqueness of citing references for works of chemistry researchers for the years 1999-2001. The two indexes cover very similar source material. This analysis of SciFinder Scholar and Web of…

In conjunction with the American Society for Information Science and Technology's (ASIST) annual meeting in fall 2001, the Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use (SIG USE) sponsored a research symposium on "Effective Methods for Studying Information Seeking and Use." This article briefly reviews six articles presented at the…

Discussion of student-centered learning focuses on the use of scaffolds. Describes types of scaffolds embedded into a hypermedia database used by eleventh graders in a history class, and examines the types of scaffolds that were most successful at assisting students with information gathering and with assisting with group self-regulation.…