Since 1994, the Teaching Library at the University of California-Berkeley has conducted an ongoing Survey of Information Literacy Competencies in selected academic departments to measure the "lower-order" information literacy skills of graduating seniors. The survey reveals that students think they know more about accessing information and…

Investigates how interaction between users and search intermediaries reveals aspects of user information problems and how users and search intermediaries focus on aspects of user information problems during online searches. Six categories were observed: documents; evaluation of search results; search strategies; information retrieval system;…

Examines the three types of "Aska" services and reviews specific examples. The first claims a user can ask a question in natural language and receive and intelligible response. The second puts the user online with a professional searcher. The third consists of access routes to "experts." Discusses subject-specific expert…

Explains the MEMOIR project (Managing Enterprise-scale Multimedia using an Open Framework for Information Re-use) that uses trails, open hypermedia link services and software agents to access and navigate information in Intranet environments to share technical information and find colleagues with similar interests. Presents results of evaluations…

Reviews published studies of Web searching. Proposes a framework for future studies that will facilitate comparison of results. Presents advantages of such a framework, and discusses the implications for the design of Web information retrieval systems studies. Compares/contrasts the searching characteristics of Web users with users of traditional…

Describes the development of a prototype Web-based database selection expert system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that is based on reference librarians' database selection strategy which allows users to simultaneously search all available databases to identify those most relevant to their search using free-text keywords or…

Discusses intangible and tangible benefits of scheduling technical services staff to assist at the reference desk: improved library service resulting from technical-services staff expertise, greater flexibility for reference desk staffing, enhanced bibliographic records for titles in the reference collection resulting in improved retrieval, and a…

Describes a study of undergraduate business students that explored their perceptions of the accuracy, relevance, and currency of information presented on the World Wide Web versus other information sources. Discusses results of statistical analyses and suggests the need to educate Web users on differences between various information sources.…

Discusses information retrieval, the effects of the Internet, and the changing role of information professionals based on experiences at JP Morgan. Topics include end-user relationships; training needs; the need for continual professional development; relationship to the information technology department; information management; and Intranet…

Reports some of the progress made over the years toward exploring information beyond the text domain. Describes the Multimedia Analysis and Retrieval Systems (MARS), developed to increase access to non-textual information. Addresses the following aspects of MARS: (1) visual feature extraction; (2) retrieval models; (3) query reformulation…

Introduces the Monte Carlo method which is shown to represent an attractive alternative to the hypergeometric model for identifying the levels at which random retrieval performance is exceeded in retrieval test collections and for overcoming some of the limitations of the hypergeometric model. Practical matters to consider when employing the Monte…

Discusses the increase in significance and importance of cataloging and authority control in the online environment of libraries to help improve both precision and recall of searches. Highlights include the inadequacies of keyword searching; corporate library experiences; and library management with foreign library branches and foreign language…

Describes common options and features to consider in evaluating which meta search engine will best meet a searcher's needs. Discusses number and names of engines searched; other sources and specialty engines; search queries; other search options; and results options. (AEF)

Describes the Health Sciences Information Tools 2000 university-public school collaborative initiative. Its premier goal is to teach the practical application of information search and evaluation strategies and use of health-related Internet databases. Students cite the most valuable component of the program to be a heightened self-confidence in…

Examines factors to consider when selecting materials to be digitized: copyrights; intellectual nature of the source materials; current and potential users; actual and anticipated nature of use; format and nature of the digital product; describing, delivering, and retaining the digital product; relationships to other digital efforts; and costs and…