Synthesizes major findings from research on the magnitude of individual differences in information retrieval (IR) tasks and suggests implications for practice and design of IR systems and interfaces. Topics discussed include indexing consistency, relevance judgments, selection of subject headings, selection of search terms, and search retrievals.…

Describes OASIS, a prototype adaptive online catalog implemented as a front end to the University of California MELVYL catalog. Topics addressed include the concept of adaptive retrieval systems, strategic search commands, feedback, prototyping using a front-end, the problem of excessive retrieval, commands to limit or increase search results, and…

Reports on research into the information-seeking habits of primary school children conducted under operational conditions. Findings reveal: the novice users favored browsing over analytic search strategies, although they showed some sophistication in construction of the latter; online help was ignored; and the children demonstrated a very high…

Explores the utility of using prior domain knowledge (in the form of taxonomies over attributes, attribute values and concept classes) to constrain the rule learner's search by requiring it to be consistent with what is already known about the domain. Spreading Activation Learning (SAL) is used to efficiently learn over taxonomically structured…

"MedLine Search Assistant" is a new interface for MEDLINE searching that improves both search precision and recall by helping the user convert a free text search to a controlled vocabulary-based search in a visual environment. Features of the interface are described, followed by details of the conceptual design and the physical design of…

Discusses the impact of research in artificial intelligence and human computer interaction on the design of bibliographic information retrieval systems, and presents design principles of a prototype system that uses semantically based searches and a knowledge base consisting of conceptual frames. (10 references) (CLB)

This paper analyzes proposals for augmenting library bibliographic records for improved subject searching in online catalogs by providing access to parts of books. Arguments for and against adding book content indexing, possible fields for enrichment, and feasibility of 11 alternatives for providing such information are presented. Twenty-two…

Describes various ways in which software systems for online catalogs can be designed to enhance subject access. Highlights include what to search (subject headings, titles, notes, authority-file records, classification numbers, and associated text); truncation and stemming; spelling correction; search strategies (headings, keywords, Boolean…

This paper introduces instructional methods using the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). The purpose of this paper is to specifically demonstrate the effective application of the Internet in teaching biology. Specific strategies such as accessing information via the Internet, effective search assignments, rules for appropriate use of the…

To better understand the development of noncompensatory strategy use for decisions involving social and nonsocial objects, a decision board technique was used to trace the information acquisition process of 88 second-, fifth-, and eighth-graders. Findings indicated that second-graders searched the decision board (a matrix with 24 squares of hidden…

This research begins to refine a cognitive model of interactive information seeking for use in the design of information retrieval (IR) systems. The research reported in this paper critically examines several interactive information seeking and retrieval models that have emerged over the last two decades. Building primarily on the stratified…

Three Web search engines--Alta Vista, Excite, and Lycos--were compared and evaluated in terms of their search capabilities and retrieval performances using sample queries drawn from real reference questions. Findings indicated Alta Vista outperformed Excite and Lycos in both search facilities and retrieval performance, although Lycos had the…

Compares features and search performances of three popular Web-based search services: InfoSeek, Lycos, and OpenText. Five queries were used to conduct searches with these services. There was a low level of result overlap among the services; none of the services provide good output control for users. Includes recommendations for improvements in…

Reviews the problems of users of online public access catalogs and argues that it is necessary to think of all searching problems as systems problems rather than user failures, and to concentrate research in the area of systems enhancements. A list of improved tools needed for subject searching in online catalogs is identified. (CLB)

Describes a study that examined interactions between users and intermediaries prior to online searching to examine communication about the user's stage in the search process. A model of information seeking that views the information search process as a series of cognitive stages is presented, and implications for user-intermediary interactions are…