Three specific contributions to the field of information retrieval are presented. The first two describe the establishment of an adaptive, interactive man-machine dialogue that produces a form of unsolicited librarian-like assistance for the user in his selection of index terms to characterize an indexing function. The data set upon which the…

Part of a larger effort in creating a computer-based European Documentation and Information System for Education (EUDISED), the present document is the report of the Working Party on formats and standards. It presents draft recommendations on general system standards: transmission standards (interchange format, magnetic tape standards, tape labels…

Part One, Automatic Content Analysis contains: "Content Analysis in Information Retrieval;""The 'Generality' Effect and the Retrieval Evaluation for Large Collections;""Automatic Indexing Using Bibliographic Citations" and "Automatic Resolution of Ambiguities from Natural Language Text." Part Two, Automatic…

This book deals with properties of vocabularies for indexing and searching document collections; the construction, organization, display, and maintenance of these vocabularies; and the vocabulary as a factor affecting the performance of retrieval systems. Most of the text is concerned with vocabularies for post-coordinate retrieval systems, with…

This is a selective bibliography covering journal literature, trade publications, monographs, technical reports, and other documents which are readily available. The bibliography covers publications dated 1969 through 1971. Although material published in languages other than English was not actively sought, some references have been cited to call…

Three problems in online searching in women's studies are type of indexing, database quality, and adequacy of coverage. Results of a recent study show there is significant end-user satisfaction and the searches done are described in order to promote greater and more effective use of online retrieval in women's studies. (Author/EM)

Describes document acquisition, selection, indexing, and abstracting and discusses online searching of the CIS database, an online system produced by the International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre. This database comprehensively covers information in the field of occupational health and safety. Sample searches and search…

Describes study that compared terminology indexing and citation indexing to determine the similarity of documents retrieved. Information science articles from 1971 to 1983 in three journals were studied for term co-occurrences. The distinction between relevant and pertinent documents is discussed, and further research topics are suggested. (LRW)

Highlights major trends in information technology and speculates on their impact for library services in the future. Bibliographic accessibility and the role of the librarian in information management in tomorrow's libraries are discussed. (EM)

Assesses the impact of current coverage and indexing policies on MEDLINE's retrieval performance in the medical behavioral sciences literature by comparing retrievals in EXCERPTA MEDICA, PSYCHINFO, SCISEARCH, and SOCIAL SCISEARCH. Searches were made with descriptors, cited references, and natural language, and recall, precision, and novelty ratios…

Proposes a rationale to be used in comparing and evaluating alternative library computer catalogs, based on varieties of bibliographic data processed, kinds of indexes constructed, and desired search strategies. A glossary of terms related to computerized catalogs is appended. (Author/CLB)

Describes videotex development; discusses optimal internal organization, visual display, and presentation of information on videotex screen; addresses policy issues of equity, privacy, and costs that affect instructional use of videotex; outlines videotex field trials and experiments within education; and draws conclusions on significance of…

Evaluates usefulness of LegalTrac Database at University of Florida College of Law for information coverage; indexing; ease in locating information compared to online and manual searching; and user reactions. Problems encountered with the system's software and equipment and practical suggestions for its use are included. (CDD)

Investigates techniques for automatic classification of book material focusing on: computer-based surrogation of monographic material, book surrogate clustering on basis of content association, evaluation of resultant classifications. Test collection (250 books) is described with surrogation by means of back-of-the-book index, table of contents,…

Zipfian laws for frequency distributions of word pairs and longer phrases are derived from text sample analysis. From crossing of Zipfian curves, it is deduced that number of multi-word phrases that occur frequently in text is surprisingly small, of same order of magnitude as number of individual word-types. (8 references) (EJS)