A framework is developed to evaluate expected search length, an important measure of an information storage and retrieval system's performance, as a function of the size of the information file and its organization in terms of indexing search structure. Previous research pertaining to search length by W.S. Cooper and others is surveyed and…

Comprehensive rules, guidelines, and examples are provided for use by ERIC indexers and lexicographers in developing and maintaining the "Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors." Instructions are included for adding new Descriptors and modifying existing terminology; procedures for justifying these actions are provided, as well. Definitions and…

This paper describes how two small non-profit libraries successfully computerized their periodical record and routing systems. The steps required in gaining acceptance of the idea, planning, designing, installing, and perfecting each system are included. The Population Council library, whose clerical staff was formerly responsible for manually…

The costs of creating and maintaining permanent files and retrieving keyword title indexes in TRIAL (Technique for Retrieving Information from Abstracts of Literature) are presented. This system, which is used for bibliographic control and file efficiency, is relatively easy to learn and use, and popular with school, academic, business, and…

CLASSIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS INVOLVES THREE DISTINCT PROCESSES-- (1) DEFINING A STRUCTURE OF CATEGORIES, (2) DETERMINING A BASIS FOR A CLASSIFICATION DECISION, AND (3) CLASSIFYING DOCUMENTS INTO CATEGORIES. OF THE THREE COMPUTER TECHNIQUES ARE DISCUSSED FOR THE LAST TWO. A WORD SELECTION MEASURE IS USED TO DELETE THOSE TERMS IN THE DOCUMENT THAT…

A REPORT HAS BEEN PREPARED ON THE ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE LIBRARY 21 EXHIBIT AT THE SEATTLE WORLD'S FAIR. SECTION ONE OF THE REPORT COVERS A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL EXHIBIT, AN ACCOUNT OF STAFF SELECTION CRITERIA, A SUMMARY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM, AND AN EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM AND THE ENTIRE LIBRARY 21…

The Computer Assisted Reference Locator (CARL) is a computer-based information retrieval system which uses coordinate indexing. Objectives established in designing the system are: (1) simplicity of reference query and retrieval; (2) ease of system maintenance; and (3) adaptability for alternative computer systems. The source documents input into…

THE BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES, AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE PROJECT ARE REVIEWED BRIEFLY. SPECIFIC AREAS DISCUSSED ARE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE UDC SCHEDULES, A COMPUTER-BASED UDC FILE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, DATA BASES FOR RETRIEVAL EXPERIMENTS, AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM EVALUATION. THE CONCLUSIONS DEAL WITH THE USEFULNESS OF THE UDC FOR MECHANIZED RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS,…

One phase of the American Industry Project was the development of a pilot program for teacher education. The decision was made to determine what kind of teacher was needed and develop the curriculum to produce this teacher. To make this determination a review of literature and interviews were conducted. Three kinds of criteria were most often used…

An interactive search and editing system, 3RIP, is being developed at the library of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm for large files of textual and numeric data. A substantial part (on the order of 10-E9 characters) of the primary file of the search system will consist of bibliographic references from a wide range of sources. If the…

The book presents a model recordkeeping system (Youth Services Information System--YSIS) for use with problem youth, including the developmentally disabled and delinquents. It is explained that the system is designed to support the planning and delivery of youth services, to maintain client-oriented case records and central files, and to produce…

Interactive computers are providing more services to greater numbers of users. However, before such systems can be economically applied to public education, the cost of high performance memory must be reduced. By using massive amounts of serial memory in conjunction with a highly sophisticated memory controller, a system was constructed which…

Computers have been used in a variety of applications for athletics since the late 1950's. These have ranged from computer-controlled electric scoreboards to computer-designed pole vaulting poles. Described in this paper are a computer-based athletic injury reporting system and a computer-assisted football scouting system. The injury reporting…

As developed by the nonprofessional staff of St. Michael's College Library, Basic Rules of Alphabetic Sequence Simplified (BRASS) is a refined system of alphabetic filing for library card catalogs. It is designed to be a concise set of principles, consistently applied, making it therefore faster than other standard filing systems. BRASS consists…