This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of keyword searching in an online catalog to traditional subject searching in one special collection of vocational rehabilitation materials. Subject area specialists assessed the contents of books using their terminology, and compared the results to MARC records. It was found that slightly…

An analysis of retrieved citations and user feedback shows that no single data base for agriculture is sufficiently comprehensive in coverage. In terms of maximum information yield and relative ease of effective profile construction, BIOSIS Previews and the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux file were the most productive data bases. (Author)

Describes an experiment which compares two methods of charging users for online searches; first, a time-based charge; and second, a two-part fee determined by connect time and citations printed. The results are analyzed in terms of patterns of user activity under both systems. (CLB)

Online seaches of sample topics in the area of forensic medicine were conducted in the following life science databases: Biosis Previews, Excerpta Medica, Medline, Scisearch, and Chemical Abstracts Search. Search outputs analyzed according to criteria of recall, uniqueness, overlap, and utility reveal the need for a cross-database approach to…

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food conducted an operational evaluation of the software packages CAIRS and STATUS, which were used to build databases and databanks. Setting up the trial, types of data involved (chemical products used as pesticides), searching and presentation of data, and the final choice are covered. (EJS)

Five models which perform search tasks of the Data Base Access and Search Environment (DBASE) are presented and used for comparison with subject search performance--unconstrained (rule-based, decision theoretic) and constrained (optimal rule-based, rule-based, probabilistic rule-based). Previous experiments and the modeling approach are briefly…

Provides background of automatic indexing and overview of Fully Automatic Syntactically based Indexing of Text (FASIT), a system based on idea that content-bearing words belong to certain syntactic categories. Results of comparison of FASIT with thesaurus and stem-based indexing systems on database of 250 documents and 22 queries are summarized.…

Uses Markovian analyses to compare the search patterns of novice and experienced searchers using an experimental computer-based instruction and assistance system for Lockheed's DIALOG. This system was developed by the Individualized Instruction for Data Access (IIDA) project at Drexel University. Eleven references are listed. (JL)

Describes a study that investigated the information-seeking behavior of users searching a card catalog and a comparable online catalog. The purpose was to explore whether a theory of human remembering, retrieval by reformulation, might be useful in explaining search behavior in bibliographic databases. (61 references) (CLB)

Discusses the results of modeling the performance of searching large text databases via various parallel hardware architectures and search algorithms. The performance under load and the cost of each configuration are compared, and a common search workload used in the modeling is described. (Contains 26 references.) (LRW)

Describes an experiment that was designed to compare three different map displays used as a visual display for information retrieval by either a self-organizing algorithm or human subjects. Results indicate that the organization and visual appearance of map displays had a significant effect on subjects' searching and browsing on the map displays.…

Reports on the use of stemming for Slovene language documents and queries in free-text retrieval systems and demonstrates that an appropriate stemming algorithm results in an increase in retrieval effectiveness when compared with nonstemming processing. A comparison is made with stemming of English versions of the same documents and queries. (24…

Describes a study of the MEDLINE and SCISEARCH databases conducted in health sciences libraries that investigated the efficacy of searching by terms and by citations. Recall and precision are examined, relevance odds and search modes are discussed, and overlap retrieval from the two databases is studied. (26 references) (LRW)

Discusses general issues of computer and human understanding; contrasts three paradigms of information retrieval methodology, including statistical, deep semantic or natural language, and smart Boolean; describes CONIT, a knowledge-based intermediary retrieval assistance system; and examines system evaluation procedures, including a…

Discusses the variety of search command languages among online systems and provides suggestions for creating online information retrieval manuals using a database management system such as dBASE III PLUS. An online systems comparison chart is included for INFOGLOBE, INFOMART, DIALOG, QUICK LAW, and REUTERS TEXTLINE. (LRW)