Summarizes the results of a study accessing music coverage in 11 databases--ABI/INFORM, AMERICA--HISTORY AND LIFE, ERIC, HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS, INSPEC, MAGAZINE INDEX, MLA BIBLIOGRAPHY, NATIONAL NEWSPAPER INDEX, PUBLIC AFFAIRS INFORMATION SERVICE INTERNATIONAL, PSYCHINFO, and SOCIOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS. Selection of search terms and relevance of items…

Forty end-users with individual information problems from an academic environment were observed, interacting with six professional intermediaries searching on their behalf in large operational systems. Conceptual categories of users' reasons for assigning particular value ratings on the value of search results and relationships between these…

Explores current research on indexing and ranking as retrieval functions of search engines on the Web. Highlights include measuring search engine stability; evaluation of Web indexing and retrieval; Web crawlers; hyperlinks for indexing and ranking; ranking for metasearch; document structure; citation indexing; relevance; query evaluation;…

This essay extends observations made by the author to Dan Marmion, in his editorial, "The Bully Pulpit" ("Information Technology and Libraries," June 1999). The author makes the point that sometimes a user can find an answer to a reference question more efficiently and effectively in a print source, sometimes in an electronic source, and sometimes…

Proposes evaluation methods based on the use of nondichotomous relevance judgements in information retrieval (IR) experiments. Argues that evaluation methods should credit IR methods for their ability to retrieve highly relevant documents. This is desirable from the user point of view in modern large IR environments. (Author/AEF)

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…

Describes and evaluates a learning model for information filtering and selective dissemination of information which is an adaptation of the generalized probabilistic model of information retrieval. The model is based on the concept of uncertainty sampling that allows for relevance feedback both on relevant and nonrelevant documents. (Author/LRW)

Increasing information retrieval performance using phrases and part-of-speech (POS) information is one example of a type of decision-making performance that is improved when using this linguistic information. The relative effectiveness of using multi-term phrases as opposed to individual terms is shown, as well as the relative worth of POS tagged…

Results from three studies examining 1295 relevance judgments by 36 information retrieval (IR) system end-users are reported. Both the region of the relevance judgments, from non-relevant to highly relevant, and motivations or levels for the relevance judgments are examined. Implications for relevance theory and IR systems evaluation are…

Discusses the need to develop the concept of user-based relevance for the benefit of users and for the meaningful development of future research in information retrieval. Characteristics of users' criteria of relevance are examined; and research methodology models are considered, including naturalistic inquiry versus scientific, or rationalistic,…

Reports on the performance of the vector space model in the presence of OCR (optical character recognition) errors in information retrieval. Highlights include precision and recall, a full-text test collection, smart vector representation, impact of weighting parameters, ranking variability, and the effect of relevance feedback. (Author/LRW)

Presents abstracts that discuss using data visualization for information retrieval and data mining, including immersive information space and spatial metaphors; spatial data using multi-dimensional matrices with maps; TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) experiments; users' information needs in cartographic information retrieval; and users' relevance…

Describes a scheme to represent a user's interest categories in an environment like the Web, and an adaptive algorithm to learn the dynamics of the user's interests through positive and negative relevance feedback. Proposes a three-descriptor model to represent a user's interests. Empirical studies confirm the effectiveness of this scheme to…

Reports the findings of an experiment using a simulated title page, author surnames, and title words, one-third of which were selected by each of the three authors, to determine the frequency of one-screen displays when used to search for known items in an implied Boolean retrieval system. (Author/AEF)