Most existing general record formats for bibliographical data are mainly designed for communication purposes but not for compact storing and efficient handling in an information retrieval system. Since bibliographic databases are well structured, the types of information that will appear in a specific record will vary only within a limited scope.…

The first sections give a detailed description for using the MARC II Search Program including: (1) general description, (2) implementation, (3) search criterion, (4) formation of retrieval statements, (5) list statement formation, (6) forming the retrieval request card deck, (7) errors and diagnostic messages, (8) MARC II search output file, (9)…

Presents a mathematical model of an information retrieval system thought to be general enough to serve as an abstract representation of most document and reference retrieval systems. The model is made up of four components that, in one form or another, appear in every functioning system. (Author)

The purpose of this flowchart is to help the new or occasional user of ORBIT answer the question "What do I do now?" (Author)

The need to search several files to obtain the maximum information on energy is emphasized. Energyline, APILIT, APIPAT, PIE News, TULSA, NTIS, and Chemical Abstracts Condensates files are described. (KP)

This article discusses some concepts of business information and surveys some online business data bases, notably the Predicasts data bases. Business applications of other categories of data bases are also discussed. (Author/KP)

The Information Retrieval Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois regularly calculates certain statistics associated with the MARC II data base. Statistics pertaining to data element occurrence, data element length, and distribution of records by Dewey Decimal division and Library of Congress class code are given. (Author)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress Information Retrieval System is a single purpose database program. It is well constructed, runs without problems, and serves as a model for dissemination of research and evaluation study results. The program seems more useful as an index to documents than as an independent database. (Author/DWH)

Describes the Canadian On Line Enquiry (CAN/OLE) system. (PF)

This paper is concerned with the organization and retrieval of records in document retrieval systems which admit of imprecision in the form of fuzziness in document characterization and retrieval rules. A mathematical model for such systems, based on the theory of fuzzy sets, is introduced. (Author)

This paper compares two types of cycling strategies possible in citation index searching. This is done using a class of pseudo-randomly generated citation digraphs whose elements have bounded bibliography size. An attempt is made to explain the results obtained using a combinatorial formula of general application to digraphs. (10 references)…

Data bases examined are CA Condensates, Index Medicus, and Biological Abstracts. Several searches are presented with a study of their comparative profiles. (Author/JB)

This paper reviews studies of information dissemination as a basis for determining how on-line retrieval can best compete with a multitude of other sources of references. (22 references) (Author/SJ)

An indexing system for chemistry and technology of macromolecular substances is sketched out, whose characteristics are convenience of use and low cost. The selection mechanism consists of a set of optical coincidence cards. The selection is a result of 15 years experience in the German Plastics Institute. (13 references) (Author)