Describes a study of graduate students at Florida State University that was conducted to determine relationships between measures of cognitive learning style and online searching behavior of novice searchers. Results of the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and other measures are discussed, and comparisons with other studies are made. (29 references)…

Provides an overview of databases that include the best information about Latin America. Highlights include problems with using "Latin America" as a search concept; Latin American information on DIALOG; the dominance of TEXTLINE among the major newswires; comparisons between DIALOG and other online services; specialized Latin American…

Presents a comparison of access to full-text articles from a free bibliographic database (PubSCIENCE) for affiliated and unaffiliated users. Found that affiliated users had access to more full-text articles than unaffiliated users had, and that both types of users could increase their level of access through additional searching and greater…

Discusses the difficulty of locating relevant information on the Web and studies two approaches to addressing the low precision and poor presentation of search results: meta-search and document categorization. Introduces MetaSpider, a meta-search engine, and presents results of a user evaluation study that compared three search engines.…

This two-part study was designed (1) to determine differences in the costs of searching BRS After Dark (BRS AD) and Knowledge Index (KI) generally and across ten selected databases, and (2) to determine whether there is a difference in the citations retrieved when the same search is conducted on the same database in both systems. Study methodology…

This study sought to determine the levels of persistence in scanning postings that are typical of users of one online public information system, LCS (Library Computer System), as it was configured in Illinois in 1987. The study involved observation of users doing searches in an academic library, questioning them about what they had done, and then…

The efficacy of using the BIOSIS Previews database as an online information retrieval tool in clinical psychology was investigated in a study conducted at the University of West Florida. Recognizing the importance of multi-database searching strategies when seeking comprehensive results, this study compared the citation output of this…

To assist librarians to better understand the information needs of industrial vs academic patrons, this study considers the purpose of searches, the sources checked prior to requesting searches, search characteristics, users' opinion of search results, and typical search profiles of the two groups. (JAB)

A comparative evaluation of two computerized reference retrieval systems, INSTRUCT (a statistically-based system) and PLEXUS (a knowledge-based system) examined their retrieval effectiveness for a set of 19 queries and 512 documents on gardening. Best results were obtained by using terms suggested by PLEXUS as the basis for an INSTRUCT search. (36…

Discusses the need for experimental studies with realistic test collections to determine the applicability of advanced information storage and retrieval techniques. The results of studies that compared user reactions to Boolean, extended Boolean, vector, and vector with probabilistic feedback approaches are described. (42 references) (CLB)

Describes and discusses the findings of an experiment that tested the precision of full-text retrieval enhanced by 29 document term weighting algorithms at the lowest, middle, and highest levels of recall, and compared with the precision of full-text retrieval without algorithms and with paragraph retrieval. (29 references) (Author/CLB)

The first article describes SPORT, a database providing international coverage of athletics and physical education, and compares it to other online services in terms of coverage, thesauri, possible search strategies, and actual usage. The second article reviews available online information on sports medicine. (CLB)

An analysis of pricing policies and costs of LEXIS and WESTLAW indicates that it is less expensive to subscribe to both using a PC microcomputer rather than a dedicated terminal. Rules for when to use each database are essential to lowering the costs of online legal research. (EM)

Compares the performance of ABI/INFORM on the DIALOG, NEXIS and DIALCOM systems in terms of documentation, database and system design, convenience, and cost. Examples of searches on the various systems are given. (CLB)

Based on systematic observations of five experienced online searchers, this model compares two searching styles: operationalist, which aims at optimal strategies to achieve precise retrieval and uses a large range of system capabilities, and conceptualist, which analyzes the request by seeking to fit it into a faceted structure. (13 references)…