Considers a new approach to construction of single-valued measures for evaluation of search results. A general statement of the order preservation property is given, and all considered single-valued measures are analyzed for the existence of this property. Problems of legitimacy of the use of single-valued measures in various situations are…

Addresses the query- versus document-oriented dichotomy in information retrieval. Introduces a maximum likelihood approach to utilizing feedback data that can be used to construct a concrete object function that estimates both document and query parameters in accordance with all available feedback data. (AEF)

Provides an overview of current image retrieval systems. Describes the architecture of the SOFM (Self Organizing Feature Maps) based image retrieval system, discussing the system architecture and features. Introduces the Kohonen model, and describes the implementation details of SOFM computation and its learning algorithm. Presents a test example…

Discusses precision and recall in information science and proposes a new model based on fractal geometry for clusters of relevant documents. Search strategies for retrieving a group of relevant documents are reviewed; fractal sets and chaotic processes are described; and the new model is explained. (Contains 43 references.) (LRW)

Presents the Semantic Distance Model (SDM) of Relevance Assessment, a cognitive model of the relationship between semantic distance and relevance assessment. Discusses premises of the model such as the subjective nature of information and the metaphor of semantic distance. Empirical results illustrate the effects of semantic distance and semantic…

Examines the use of query reformulation and particularly the use of relevance feedback by users of the Excite Web search engine. Discusses results that show limited use of query reformulation and relevance feedback; identifies the most common pattern of searching; and discusses implications for Web search system design. (Contains 16 references.)…

Compares support vector machines (SVMs) to Rocchio, Ide regular and Ide dec-hi algorithms in information retrieval (IR) of text documents using relevancy feedback. If the preliminary search is so poor that one has to search through many documents to find at least one relevant document, then SVM is preferred. Includes nine tables. (Contains 24…

Discusses value of search results as a whole, a measure which asks for a user's rating of the usefulness of a set of search results based on a Likert scale, and suggests that this measure provides a simple way for system comparison and eliminates problems of information-retrieval evaluation with multiple measures. (Author/LRW)

This study investigated through empirical methods the extent to which information acquisition and information management capacity of administrators in tertiary institutions in South-Western Nigeria contributed to their decision-making effectiveness. It adopted the ex post facto survey research design, using the random sampling technique to select…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the problems and issues faced by online library catalogues. It aims to establish how libraries have undertaken the mission of developing the next generation catalogues and how they compare to new tools such as Amazon. Design/methodology/approach: An expert study was carried out in January…

A study was conducted of the users of the Indiana University PROBE computer retrieval program using the Resources in Education ERIC data base. The critical incident survey identified the PROBE user characteristics, needs, and satisfaction. (Author)

A reorganization of the NASA data base for faster retrieval is described. (PF)

The third annual report (covering the 18-month period from January 1969 to June 1970) of the Stanford Physics Information REtrieval System (SPIRES) project, which is developing an augmented bibliographic retrieval capability, is presented in this document. A first section describes the background of the project and its association with Project…

Presented is an exploration of parallel processing as it might be applied to three functions fundamental to information science: sorting, searching, and evaluation of a search prescription. (Author)

Updates the comparison of the ELHILL (currently ELHILL 3, formerly ELHILL 2) and STAIRS programs as they affect on-line searching of the MEDLARS citation file. (Author)