The Association of Information Dissemination Centers (ASIDIC) formed the Cooperative Data Management Committee to address the problems of information center operators and data base suppliers. The number of operating centers in the U.S. is limited and their future expansion in numbers and in type of services, will depend on the education of users.…

This Bibliography includes all of the items added to the Technical Information Center of the National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health from January through December 1971. The publication is broken down into eleven major categories. These are: (1) chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology; (2) mortality and morbidity; (3) neoplastic diseases; (4)…

The development of a computerized system of word analysis in order to compare and compile word lists is outlined. It is suggested that a computerized system would be an efficient way of comparing word lists for such elements as content (according to criteria of range, scope, and form of words), obsolescence, levels of difficulty, number of words,…

Presented are the results of a study which examined the scope of the ERIC data base. Recommendations include a more explicitly stated policy for selective indexing of data base and indexing procedures, and also a consideration of indexing, but not abstracting, relevant dissertations. (AP)

The information retrieval thesaurus emerged in operational form following a confused intellectual history as a secondary indexing aid. Prescriptive language ideas of Moore and Luhn were absent in early forms and no one attempted to reduce retrieval language as advocated earlier. DuPont retrieval thesaurus (1959) offered a model for further…

Describes study that compared and judged the quality of subject indexing in online bibliographic databases. Documents from medical behavioral science literature are used with terms drawn from MEDLINE, PsychINFO, BIOSIS, and Excerpta Medica. Comparative statistics are presented on how each database links related documents and discriminates among…

Reviews John Wallace Metcalfe's writing on the nature and function of the public library in Australian society, the constitution and regulation of education for librarianship, and techniques for cataloging and indexing. (51 notes with references) (Author/CLB)

Explores the concept of information retrieval and summarizes the development of information retrieval systems. The role of relevance judgments as a systems test is discussed, principles of what information systems can and cannot be expected to achieve are presented, and areas of research interest are identified. (43 references) (CLB)

Examines the literature on the myth of "hard science-soft science" as a means of defining scientific specialties and classifying science literature, and discusses some shortcomings of scholarship in library and information science. Use of Toulmin's categorization of sciences to organize the literature and provide access for scientists is…

Reports on the design and use of a computer system designed to assist online database searchers in determining the relevance of downloaded abstracts. The system, which runs on a personal computer, includes aids for individual review of abstracts and semiautomatic determination of relevance; prospects for fully automatic use are discussed. (CDD)

Traces history of National Technical Information Service (NTIS), charting growth into social science information resource. Acquisition criteria and sources of social science information processed by NTIS, indexing practices and subject classifications of interest to social scientists, and relationships between NTIS and Government Printing Office…

End user searching on the Web has become the primary method of locating images for many people. This study investigates the nature of Web image queries by attempting to map them to known image classification schemes. In this study, approximately 100,000 image queries from a major Web search engine were collected in 1997, 1999, and 2001. A…

This book examines what has been done in providing subject access to networked resources. The first chapter provides a historical overview of information services, developments in information technology, end users, and the Internet, as well as a discussion of the library response to these developments. The second chapter discusses metadata,…

No one source for locating government documents on a given subject exists. Librarians responding to a questionnaire indicated dissatisfaction with even the most used source, the Monthly Catalog''. Subject retrieval, other sources, and suggestions from librarians are discussed. (5 references) (DH)

This overview of the current capabilities of subject access in online public catalogs discusses keyword searching versus subject cataloging, users' views of the online catalog, and user-friendly versus user-hostile systems. Existing online catalogs in public and academic libraries are cited as examples. (EJS)