Discussion of mediated successive searches conducted by intermediaries using the Dialog online service focuses on reasons, frequency, and characteristics of successive searches. Data is based on a longitudinal study conducted in the United Sates and the United Kingdom that investigated the processes of mediated information retrieval searching…

Discusses the use of link structure analysis in World Wide Web information retrieval and in retrieval and ranking algorithms of search engines. Presents two techniques which bias co-citation based link analyses towards favorable Web pages and away from undesired pages, and are then integrated into existing link-analyzing algorithms. (Author/LRW)

Reports an approach to automatic thesaurus construction for Chinese documents. Presents an effective Chinese keyword extraction algorithm. Compared to previous studies, this method speeds up the thesaurus generation process drastically. It also achieves a similar percentage level of term relatedness. Includes three tables and four figures.…

Describes a new signature file method, called the multiorganizational scheme, for accessing information from large databases containing both formatted and free-text data. Implementation issues are discussed, and computational results based on a mathematical model are presented, as well as results using a library database. (43 references) (MES)

Examines various ways of dividing the labor of an information search between the person and the system. Different configurations of two dimensions--degree of system involvement in searching and types of search activity carried out by the person or system--are discussed. Recommendations for further research and development are offered. (49…

Describes the Case Hierarchy, a model of the case system of unconstrained natural language, and ways in which the case system is specialized in a restricted domain. Results of a feasibility study which examined the utility of the Case Hierarchy and the Case Hierarchy Tool (an intelligent editor supporting the domain analysis process) are…

Discusses the problem of determining an adequate sample size for an information retrieval experiment comparing two systems on separate samples of requests. The application of statistical methods to information retrieval experiments is discussed, the Mann-Whitney U Test is used for determining minimum sample sizes, and variables and distributions…

Discusses the distinctive differences between the English and Chinese languages from the system designer's point of view and explores the potential problems for Chinese information retrieval systems, focusing on character entry and retrieval. The advantages and disadvantages of current approaches are discussed, and a regular expression search…

Argues that, given a document and a query, users first judge the document against the individual concepts in the query and then use some inferencing process to derive a compound judgment for the entire query. The research examines the relative effectiveness of probabilistic and fuzzy models at predicting users' compound judgments. (23 references)…

Identifies existing categories of end users of online information retrieval systems, discusses problems that have been encountered by information providers and customers, and suggests strategies for capturing new end-user markets. Issues discussed include user cordial interfaces, CD-ROM products, ethics involved in information provision, and…

Describes an experiment that compared the performance of online and print tools in answering two types of ready reference questions: conceptual questions (requests for citations) and factual questions. The results show that online tools perform best for conceptual questions, but simple factual questions can be answered more quickly using print…

Describes the differences between English and Chinese information retrieval and the problems with Chinese character entry and encoding. It is argued that regular expression searching facilitates Chinese character entry and retrieval. Mathematical models are developed for controlling noisy characters retrieved by regular expressions containing…

Describes the new concept of HYPERBASE and its relationship to classical hypermedia; a multimedia database retrieval system (SOPHIADOC) and its features in relation to the HYPERBASE concept; and an experimental use of SOPHIADOC to organize and scroll selected images on the "First Emperor of China" videodisk. Fifteen project publications…

Argues that access to hypertext documents in read-only forms contradicts the assumption that hypertext removes the distinction between author and reader, and discusses the implications for authors of hypertext documents. The creation of hypertext versions of journal articles and a database of such articles are described. (four references) (CLB)

Presents a model for the a priori analysis of natural language queries which uses an algorithm to transform the query into a logical pattern that is used to determine the answerability of the query. The results of testing by a prototype system implemented in PROLOG are discussed. (20 references) (CLB)