Examined relationship between place of residence and use of formal services prior to entering nursing home among older persons (n=131) within 30 days of admission. Found no residential differences in percent reporting use of formal services, number of services received, kinds of services used, or average length of time services had been received.…

Investigates whether differing conceptualizations of voice mail (VM) exist among different types of VM users. Analyzes semantic networks of comments by people who use VM as a traditional telephone genre or as a new, messaging genre. Finds considerable similarities among four types of users, but also differentiates somewhat between high senders and…

This study of an individual information user with a real information problem examined the relevance judgment process using bibliographic records and full-text documents. Results provide a basis for understanding the judgment process in information searching. Deselection of items and the associated application of judgment criteria provide insight…

Describes a theoretically and empirically based framework for how users formulate and employ information-seeking strategies in open-ended information systems (OEISs). Discusses challenges related to OEISs. Describes OEIS theoretical and users' perspectives. Presents an example based on a recent study to illustrate use of the OEIS…

Describes the use of questionnaires and interviews for a study on the use of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Library (Nigeria) by international students. Problems faced by students are highlighted, including the language barrier, new services, and unfamiliar library terminology. (Author/LRW)

Discusses results of a survey of factors influencing database use in public libraries. Highlights the importance of content; ease of use; and importance of instruction. Tabulates importance indications for number and location of workstations, library hours, availability of remote login, usefulness and quality of content, lack of other databases,…

Describes a study of Ohio State University Libraries' net.TUTOR program that provides Web-based instruction on various aspects of using the Internet for research. Analyzes data extracted from 465 user-history logs to determine patterns of usage by course-affiliated users versus general users. (Author/LRW)

Examined how traditional-age, residential, first-year students (n=23) use e-mail and found that, although students used e-mail extensively, only a limited amount of their correspondence enhanced academic or social integration. Classification of messages (n=4,603) indicated that 10.2 percent of e-mail messages went to professors or classmates,…

A survey of university Ph.D. faculty (biologists and social scientists) investigated the relationship between Internet use and computer use (experience and perceived expertise), experience with Internet use, perceived expertise of Internet use, and perceived utility of the Internet. Survey showed that skilled computer users were more likely to…

Discusses the need for an intuitive library information gateway to meet users' information needs and describes the process involved in redesigning a library Web site based on experiences at Roger Williams University. Explains usability testing methods that were used to discover how users were interacting with the Web site interface. (Author/LRW)

Discusses database usage data from a sample of 98 public libraries and library systems in the United States and Canada that revealed patterns of use. Results of the questionnaire used, which is appended, showed the number of workstations was statistically correlated with amount of use. (Author/LRW)

Discusses results from recent relevance research with implications for information professionals. The studies show that beyond the usual concern with high relevance and non-relevance judgments, partially relevant judgments by users are important. Calls for the adoption of a more complex view of human relevance judgments in the education and…

Elementary library media specialists in Iowa recorded their use of time for two days. Descriptive measures indicated nearly equal amounts of time for direct services and for management and operations activities. Automation, scheduling, support staff, and number of buildings served by the media specialist were found to have a significant influence…

Demonstrates a method of visual analysis which takes advantage of the pooling technique of topic-document set creation in the TREC collection. Describes the procedures used to create the initial visual fields, and their respective treatments as vectors without stemming and vectors with stemming; discusses results of these treatments and…

Reports on methodological developments in a project to assess the adoption of the Web by publishers of business information for electronic commerce. Describes the approach used on a sample of 20 business publishers to identify five clusters of publishers ranging from traditionalist to innovator. Distinguishes between adopters and nonadopters of…