Describes two systems--Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) and Rosebud--that provide protocol-based mechanisms for accessing remote full-text information servers. Design constraints, human interface design, and implementation are examined for five interfaces to these systems developed to run on the Macintosh or Unix terminals. Sample screen…

Discusses the use of thesauri in automatic indexing and describes the development of a prototype computerized abstractor's assistant. Topics addressed include TEXNET, a text network management system; the use of TEXNET for abstracting; the structure and use of a thesaurus for abstracting in TEXNET; and weighted terms. (Contains 26 references.)…

Discusses standards as tools to promote compatibility and improve practice, the role of research versus expert opinion in creating standards, and the changing scope of indexing standards. The current draft of the NISO (National Information Standards Organization) American Standard Guidelines for Indexes in Information Retrieval (Z39.4) is…

Describes a conceptual design of a bibliographic retrieval system that enables more thorough control of bibliographic entities. The conceptual schema describes a database comprising two separate files of bibliographic description, one of intellectual works and the other of physical items. This model provides information about a work's association…

Describes the use of a telecommunications program called "PC Anywhere" to afford users remote access to compact disc ready-only-memory (CD-ROM) systems. Describes hardware requirements and benefits to libraries and users. (DMM)

Discusses special problems that the symbols for sharps and flats in music notation present for the retrieval of music materials in online catalogs, and describes the results of a survey of vendors of online systems that was conducted to determine how vendors deal with this notation. (nine references) (LRW)

Discusses methods of browsing in online public access catalogs (OPACs) and describes one method that uses information pertaining to the physical description of books from MARC records to simulate images of books on a library shelf. Electronic browsing through MARC is discussed, and methods of enhancing OPACs are reviewed. (51 references) (LRW)

Reports on the design and implementation of PBS (Parsing, Boolean Recognition, Stemming), a software module used in conjunction with an intermediary program to interpret natural language queries used for online database searching. Results of a test of the initial version, which is designed for use with bibliographic files, are reported. (13…

Describes a study that was conducted to determine how well subject authority lists, or thesauri, control indexing vocabulary. Indexer consistency using the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB) thesaurus was tested by comparing indexing done by CAB and by National Agricultural Library (NAL) indexers. (six references) (LRW)

Discussion of indexing consistency and its possible effect on information retrieval focuses on a study that compared indexing (or cataloging) consistency between Library of Congress catalogers and British Library catalogers assigning Library of Congress Subject Headings. The average indexing consistency value is calculated for 82 titles in library…

Describes a conceptual Knowledge Representation Language (KRL) developed at the French National Center for Scientific Research, that is used for the construction and use of Large Knowledge Bases (LKBs) and/or Intelligent Information Retrieval Systems (IIRSs). Semantic factors are discussed, and the specialization hierarchies used are explained.…

Describes study of college students that was conducted to determine the effect on an information retrieval task of different ways of organizing users' knowledge. The effect of user characteristics on information interactions is discussed, and the note-taking instructions designed to generate different organizations of knowledge are explained. (20…

Discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and considers four potential roles for AI in information retrieval (IR): (1) information characterization, i.e., building a knowledge base; (2) information seeking, i.e., search formulation; (3) support functions, including abstracting; and (4) systems integration. Three examples are given that show how AI…

Reviews themes of the past 20 years of Australian special librarianship. Highlights include contributions of Lesle Symes; the role of librarians during periods of social and technological change; the need for special librarians to reestablish themselves as experts in information retrieval and information organization; and information professionals…

Compares the qualitative method of grounded theory (GT) with Ranganathan's construction of faceted classifications (FC) in library and information science. Both struggle with a core problem--the representation of vernacular words and processes, empirically discovered, which will, although ethnographically faithful, be powerful beyond the single…