This paper describes the rationale for collection, digitisation, and quantitative characterization of a large multispeaker database of spoken Australian English. The speakers, all of whom were born in Australia of Australian parents, were recorded on 10 occasions over a period of months with each speaker recording a variety of speaking styles on…

Relates the special properties of videodiscs and the economics of videodisc production with the nature of second-language instruction, and suggests ways to design and use cost-effective videodiscs as aural and visual databases for a variety of instructional levels and contexts. (two references) (Author/CB)

Reports on a project showing that relational data models, including unnormalized models that allow the nesting of relations, cannot fully capture the structural properties of lexical information. A feature-based model that allows for a full representation of some nesting and defines a factoring mechanism is described and demonstrated. (38…

Describes infomapping, or the mapping of corporate information assets, as a method to manage information as an organizational resource. Attributes of Information Resource Entities (IREs), which are profiled in an information map, are described; management benefits are discussed; and the use of InfoMapper, a software tool for information mapping,…

This description of a study that monitored user selection of business and legal databases in EasyNet's multifile Scan option presents a ranked list of selected databases and discusses the effects of price, recommended database indicator, file record format, database name, and individual files on database selection. (Six references) (CLB)

The third of three articles on the NOTIS interface to locally mounted database tapes looks at the experience of the Vanderbilt University library. Topics include the system control file, master functions, database functions, terminal functions that regulate access, database maintenance, impact on the local computer system, and report features.…

This study examined the contribution to retrieval effectiveness (measured by recall and precision) of adding content-bearing information such as abstracts and tables of contents to bibliographic records. It was found that the addition of content-bearing information improves overall retrieval effectiveness. Improvement was primarily in terms of…

Discussion of computerized simulation games focuses on the organization and use of data dictionaries to support more flexible development and maintenance of game administration systems and participants' decision support systems. The roles of game designers, game administrators, and game participants are discussed. (12 references) (LRW)

Describes O*Net (Occupational Information Network), the database that replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. O*Net includes information on the knowledge, skills, abilities, interest, preparation, contexts, and tasks associated with 1,122 occupations. Includes a comparison chart and a content model. (JOW)

Two case studies illustrate how institutional researchers have harnessed new information technologies to streamline office functions. At Illinois Institute of Technology, the World Wide Web supports an institutional information clearinghouse and database. At Willamette University (Oregon), an analytical database is coupled with Web technology,…

Information extraction (IE) is the extraction and recording of information about a prespecified set of entities, relations, or events from natural language texts in structured representations called templates. This article provides an overview of IE from the 1960s to the present, discusses techniques, describes applications, and highlights future…

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a combination of maps and databases that provides geographical information not otherwise possible. The result of combining street data and geographic data is a precision map showing exact street locations. GIS can be used by delivery people, emergency vehicles, and taxicabs. (JOW)

Discussion of dictionaries as databases focuses on the digitizing of The Oxford English dictionary (OED) and the use of Standard Generalized Mark-Up Language (SGML). Topics include the creation of a consortium to digitize the OED, document structure, relational databases, text forms, sequence, and discourse. (LRW)

Surveyed the scientific contributions of representative economics research groups in France based on the EconLit bibliographic database. Research groups were categorized in either the "French specificity" group or the "traditional" group. Three indicators - overall visability, net production, and international presence -- were…

Describes a system that stores course materials for computer-based training programs in a relational database called Of Course! Outlines the basic structure of the databases; explains distinctions between Of Course! and other authoring languages; and describes how data is retrieved from the database and presented to the student. (Author/LRW)