Discusses methods of browsing in online public access catalogs (OPACs) and describes one method that uses information pertaining to the physical description of books from MARC records to simulate images of books on a library shelf. Electronic browsing through MARC is discussed, and methods of enhancing OPACs are reviewed. (51 references) (LRW)

Reports on the design and implementation of PBS (Parsing, Boolean Recognition, Stemming), a software module used in conjunction with an intermediary program to interpret natural language queries used for online database searching. Results of a test of the initial version, which is designed for use with bibliographic files, are reported. (13…

Describes a study that was conducted to determine how well subject authority lists, or thesauri, control indexing vocabulary. Indexer consistency using the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB) thesaurus was tested by comparing indexing done by CAB and by National Agricultural Library (NAL) indexers. (six references) (LRW)

Discussion of indexing consistency and its possible effect on information retrieval focuses on a study that compared indexing (or cataloging) consistency between Library of Congress catalogers and British Library catalogers assigning Library of Congress Subject Headings. The average indexing consistency value is calculated for 82 titles in library…

Describes a conceptual Knowledge Representation Language (KRL) developed at the French National Center for Scientific Research, that is used for the construction and use of Large Knowledge Bases (LKBs) and/or Intelligent Information Retrieval Systems (IIRSs). Semantic factors are discussed, and the specialization hierarchies used are explained.…

Describes study of college students that was conducted to determine the effect on an information retrieval task of different ways of organizing users' knowledge. The effect of user characteristics on information interactions is discussed, and the note-taking instructions designed to generate different organizations of knowledge are explained. (20…

Discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and considers four potential roles for AI in information retrieval (IR): (1) information characterization, i.e., building a knowledge base; (2) information seeking, i.e., search formulation; (3) support functions, including abstracting; and (4) systems integration. Three examples are given that show how AI…

Reviews themes of the past 20 years of Australian special librarianship. Highlights include contributions of Lesle Symes; the role of librarians during periods of social and technological change; the need for special librarians to reestablish themselves as experts in information retrieval and information organization; and information professionals…

Compares the qualitative method of grounded theory (GT) with Ranganathan's construction of faceted classifications (FC) in library and information science. Both struggle with a core problem--the representation of vernacular words and processes, empirically discovered, which will, although ethnographically faithful, be powerful beyond the single…

Presents an overview of two projects that concern local area networks and the common point between networks as they relate to network security. Discusses security architectures based on firewall components, packet filters, application gateways, security-management components, an intranet solution, user registration by Web form, and requests for…

Discusses searching on the World Wide Web. Highlights include search-engine size; features of the six largest search engines; features of five metasearch engines; intelligent agents; two Web sites for difficult-to-find information, including industry statistics and market data; Internet publishers and databases; specialty search engines; and…

Suggests that the World Wide Web can easily be integrated into the classroom but that students must be taught to use a Web browser and how to use search engines to locate the information they need on the Web. Also provides information on evaluating Web sites. (JOW)

Describes methods for applying natural-language processing for automatic concept-based indexing of full text and methods for exploiting the structure and hierarchy of full-text documents to a large collection of full-text documents drawn from the Health Services/Technology Assessment Text database at the National Library of Medicine. Examines how…

Reviews Web-search tools available to librarians. Discusses the Clever project, (part of the Computer Science Principles and Methodologies Department at the IBM Almaden Research Center, Silicon Valley, California), an algorithm that finds authoritative sources on the Web; Google technology, based on links between Web pages; Ask Jeeves, a…

Discusses problems that occur in information retrieval when foreign words appear in Korean texts. Describes an algorithm that identifies a phrase containing a foreign word and then extracts that word based on statistical information, and explains a method for back-transliteration of a foreign word to its English origin. (Author/LRW)