The history and significance of relevance as a concept in information retrieval is reviewed. The shift from the idea of relevance as an objective criterion for measures to the widespread acceptance of relevance as a manifestation of a highly subjective and inconsistent response is discussed. It is argued that relevance judgments can b e useful as…

A series of five batches of twenty searches were carried out in a three year span of the INSPEC data base by the 31 Company's Information Retrieval Service. The same queries were processed manually in the corresponding volumes of Science Abstracts and comparison of the output of each search method exposed reasons for the failures. Emphasis is laid…

This paper is an extension of "Referential Consulting Networks" which explicated the concept of a network of referential consultants each of whom could "field" questions by: (a) answering them on the basis of his own expertise; (b) answer them with the help of library resources at his command; (c) refer the question to a…

This article examines the Harvard Business Review Online (HBRO) database (bibliographic description fields, abstracts, extracted information, full text, subject descriptors) and reports on 31 sample HBRO searches conducted in Bibliographic Retrieval Services to test differences between searching full text and searching bibliographic record. Sample…

Presents a model that places Boolean database queries into conjunctive normal form, thereby allowing probabilistic ranking of documents and the incorporation of relevance feedback. Experimental results compare the performance of a sequential learning probabilistic retrieval model with the proposed integrated Boolean probabilistic model and a fuzzy…

Explains an experiment in text-searching retrieval for cancer questions which developed and used computer procedures (via human simulation) to select search words from medical dictionaries. This study is based on an earlier one in which search words were humanly selected, and the recall results of the two studies are compared. (Author/LRW)

Explains a new methodology for thesaurus design that is specifically geared for use by novice end-users, and describes a faceted hierarchical thesaurus organization which provides an economical information retrieval system in a corporate setting. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of problems with fuzzy subsets in document retrieval highlights attempts to invent a system of weighted fuzzy queries in which weights correspond to relative importance of each term in query as whole, and use of Kantor's Logic for Retrieval as an alternative to Boolean queries. Six references are cited. (EJS)

Empirical significance of document partitions is investigated as a function of index term-weight and similarity thresholds. Results show the same empirically preferred partitions can be detected by two independent strategies: an analysis of cluster-based retrieval analysis and an analysis of regularities in the underlying structure of the document…

A standard online search strategy involving use of acronyms is evolved and searches are performed over wide range of databases. Advantage gained by use of acronyms is measured with respect to free and controlled terms, and percentages of extra documents retrieved are given. Four references and sample searches are included. (EJS)

Describes research designed to improve automatic pre-coordinate term indexing by applying language analysis techniques to identify term sources in requests, and to generate variant expressions of concepts involved for document text searching. Text analysis, term extraction, variant generation, and retrieval trial are highlighted. Thirteen…

A report of several comparisons designed to measure the retrieval effectiveness of machined-aided indexing and manual indexing. (Author)

The traditional concern with relevance or nonrelevance of unexamined documents is misplaced, and traditional measures of effectiveness should be replaced by estimates of direct utility of examined documents. (Author)

This volume is a compilation of the papers presented at the 10th ASIS (American Society for Information Science) workshop on classification research. Major themes include the social and cultural informatics of classification and coding systems, subject access and indexing theory, genre analysis and the agency of documents in the ordering of…

In part I (JASIS, March-April 1973) the author proposed a methodology for evaluating a retrieval system based on how much users are willing to pay to use the system. Part II sets forth steps in testing the methodology through the analysis of underlying assumptions and through experimentation. (3 references) (Author/RS)