Describes the PADOK-II project in Germany, which was designed to give information on the effects of linguistic algorithms on retrieval in a full-text database, the German Patent Information System (GPI). Relevance assessments are discussed, statistical evaluations are described, and searches are compared for the full-text section versus the…

Describes a project that was designed to test the relative efficacy of index terms and full-text for the retrieval of documents in MEDLINE journals. Precision and relevance of citations retrieved from full-text databases versus bibliographic databases is discussed, and the addition of MEDLINE indexing to enhance full-text medical journals is…

Defines and discusses competitive intelligence for business decision making and suggests the use of online databases to start looking for relevant information. The best databases to use are described, designing the search strategy is explained, reviewing and editing results are discussed, and the presentation of results is considered. (LRW)

Reviews the literature on the content aspects of database quality, specifically scope, composition, currency, accuracy, consistency, completeness, and source, journal, geographic, language, and time-period coverage. These criteria can be evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively to determine the profile of a database, and to ascertain search…

Database Tomography (DT) is a textual database-analysis system consisting of algorithms for extracting multiword phrase frequencies and proximities from a large textual database, to augment interpretative capabilities of the expert human analyst. Describes use of the DT process, supplemented by literature bibliometric analyses, to derive technical…

Reports on the creation of a prototype, Web-based expert system that helps users better navigate library databases at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Discusses concerns that gave rise to the project. Summarizes previous work/research and common approaches in academic libraries today. Describes plans for testing the prototype,…

This article reports on the experiences of the Kimberley Thusanang Project (KTP). It proposes that the project's use of a database system as a management tool represents a significant development in the design of effective education projects in South Africa. The article describes how this system assists project management in overcoming two key…

Rules and guidelines are provided for the process of acquiring documents and journal articles to be considered for inclusion in the ERIC database. The differing responsibilities of the Government, the ERIC Clearinghouses, and the ERIC Facility are delineated. The various methods by which documentary material can be obtained are described. Sample…

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a national information network designed to provide users with ready access to education literature. One of the clearinghouses is the ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse (CAPS). Established at The University of Michigan in 1966, CAPS was one of the original ERIC clearinghouses.…

The Excerpta Medica on-line test data base of 181,653 records was found to be supplementary to MEDLINE and TOXLINE but especially responsive to searches on drug products. (Author)

Provides an analysis of the CONversion of SERials (CONSER) Project from the point of view of an academic librarian who has been involved in reference service functions. (Author/PF)

Describes the work in progress toward an international machine-readable cataloging system and discusses the problems remaining. (Author)

A statistical description of a text retrieval system allows the derivation of a unique and measurable performance criterion that, in turn, may be used in discussing various parameters of systems performance. (Author/PF)

Describes how reference librarians can help patrons use machine-readable data files. (PF)

Computer software package systems called data management systems have great potential for the small or medium-sized library. (Author/PF)