Discussion of user interfaces to information retrieval systems focuses on interfaces that incorporate thesauri as part of their searching and browsing facilities. Discusses research literature related to information searching behavior, information retrieval interface evaluation, search term selection, and query expansion; and compares thesaurus…

Reviews the history, current applications, and future of hypertext. Topics covered include current prototype applications, limitations of hypertext, and its possible impact on libraries. Hypertext-related definitions and a list of current hypertext systems and developers are provided. (12 references) (CLB)

Discusses library use studies that examined library catalog search failures and demonstrates types of online catalog access that can reduce the failures caused by card catalog flaws or by user search errors by half. The use of single keyword, implied Boolean, or derived truncated key retrieval is suggested. (14 references) (LRW)

Explores the significance of expert system design for library reference services and library education, focusing on model logic and modeling for query analysis. The approaches of some graduate library schools are reviewed. Appendices included a decision-support module, a reference module component, and a typology of queries and reference tools.…

An appraisal of recent reviews of the literature on management development demonstrates the existence of a number of perspectives on the topic, and this lack of a uniform approach has contributed to confusion about the subject. This article examines a series of recent and existing literature reviews on the topic of management development. It…

The PRODIGY/EBL system [Minton88] was one of the first works to directly attack the problem of strategy utility. The problem of finding effective strategies was reduced to the problem of finding effective rules. However, this paper illustrates limitations of the approach. There are two basic difficulties. The first arises from the fact that the…

Focuses on the multiple design issues involved in creating successful menu selection systems: semantic organization, response time, display rates, shortcuts for frequent users, titles, phrasing of menu items, graphic layout, and selection mechanisms. Pop-up and embedded menus, experimental results, and design guidelines are also covered.…

Reviews color research and considers its implications for the design of instructional materials. Topics include physiological and psychological effects; color and learning, including attention, search tasks, retention and other objective measures, and non-objective measures; color and the cathode ray tube (CRT); and further research needs.…

This review deals with online catalog enhancements and developments over the past two to three years, including bibliographic standards; cataloging rules; MARC; bibliographic records; subject access, including keyword searching, Library of Congress Subject Headings, multiple vocabularies, and classification; refining searches; enriching…

Discusses the design of interfaces for online systems and suggests requirements that must be met to offer maximum aid to inexperienced users. Highlights include the online search process, user data, query processing, database descriptors, semantic links, multilingual processing, search strategies, and distributed systems. A 20-page bibliography…

Describes research using students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that investigated the ways in which different levels of knowledge about a topic can affect search strategies in an online public access catalog. Previous research is reviewed, and implications for information intermediaries and designers of information retrieval…

Discusses new hardware and software developments for microcomputers and considers strategies for future library microcomputing. Topics discussed include developments with Macintosh computers; the importance of local area networks (LANs); upgrading options for hardware; operating system upgrades; dynamic data exchange (DDE); microcomputer…

Reviews the literature on the content aspects of database quality, specifically scope, composition, currency, accuracy, consistency, completeness, and source, journal, geographic, language, and time-period coverage. These criteria can be evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively to determine the profile of a database, and to ascertain search…

An instruction program that covers search tools on the Web should incorporate a user's information need as the basis for teaching these tools. This article lays the theoretical groundwork for such a query-based approach, deriving its argument from the literature published in the early days of databases in libraries. A review of recent literature…

In machine learning there is considerable interest in techniques which improve planning ability. Initial investigations have identified a wide variety of techniques to address this issue. Progress has been hampered by the utility problem, a basic tradeoff between the benefit of learned knowledge and the cost to locate and apply relevant knowledge.…