Presents an overview of the ways in which user/system interaction in interactive information-retrieval (IR) systems has been treated in IR research and practice over the years. Describes the characteristics of a number of IR systems, as well as proposals for IR systems, in light of challenges set for by John Bennett in 1971. Contains 82…

"MedLine Search Assistant" is a new interface for MEDLINE searching that improves both search precision and recall by helping the user convert a free text search to a controlled vocabulary-based search in a visual environment. Features of the interface are described, followed by details of the conceptual design and the physical design of…

Reviews the characteristics of the Cheshire II system that is being used to implement full-text and fielded searching of bibliographic information for the University of California Berkeley Digital Library Initiative. Examines its performance when applied to a collection of large full-text documents in the TREC Interactive Retrieval Track and its…

Examines visual information needs as expressed in users' Web image queries; the data set consisted of 1,025,908 sequential queries from 211,058 users of EXCITE, a major Internet search service. Provides data on: image queries, image search sessions, and image terms. Discusses implications for the development of models for visual information…

Suggests that the money spent ($100 billion) to fix the Y2K bug in the United States resulted in improved campus computer systems. Reports from campuses around the country indicate that both mainframe and desktop systems experienced fewer problems than expected. (DB)

Describes research aimed at investigating dynamically evolving database environments and corresponding schemata that allow storage and manipulation of variable length data, a variable number of fields per record, variable length records and fields, and dynamically defined objects. Proposes a new framework for dynamic database environments.…

Describes UKOLN's (United Kingdom Office for Library and Information Networking--a national center for support in network information management in the library/information communities) experimental system that allows digital object identifiers (DOIs) encoded as uniform resource names (URNs) to be resolved on behalf of Web browsers by Squid, a…

Explores the potential utility of design principles and the design studio for enacting information infrastructures essential for individuals and communities to thrive in the knowledge economy. The proposed approach, Digital Places Design, furnishes those engaged in planning and managing telecommunications infrastructure with a tool to realize…

Describes a Web site that introduces novice Web users to principles of design and navigation of instructional Web sites. Discusses the process involved in designing the site, lessons learned while developing it, and recommendations for further research. Includes a list of research-based guidelines derived from the literature in the areas of screen…

College and university faculty members are comfortable with their role as facilitators of learning in the traditional classroom setting. However, how do they move a current course to the online format? Is an online course merely a transfer of materials used in the course to an online format? The experiences and research results of these authors…

The notion of scaffolding learners to help them succeed in solving problems otherwise too difficult for them is an important idea that has extended into the design of scaffolded software tools for learners. However, although there is a growing body of work on scaffolded tools, scaffold design, and the impact of scaffolding, the field has not yet…

Students are, increasingly, digital content producers, and participate extensively in evolving online social networks. The emergence of the former represents subtle changes in students' experience of images, audience, copyright, ownership of learning, and technology. Experiencing the latter places students in an awkward position in terms of…

Five years ago, North Shore Community College (NSCC) encountered rising enrollments in the face of lagging state funding. The addition of two new campuses stretched NSCC thin as it attempted to provide administrative and academic services across five (more recently consolidated to four) locations. Its students increasingly struggled to balance the…

Engineering design graphics education has come a long way in the past two decades. The emergence of solid geometric modeling technology has become the focal point for the graphical development of engineering design ideas. The main attraction of this 3-D modeling approach is the downstream application of the data base to analysis and…

A considerable amount of experiences in teaching object-oriented concepts using the Java language have been reported to date, some of which describe language pitfalls and concrete learning difficulties. In this paper, a number of additional issues that have been experienced as difficult for students to master, along with approaches intended to…