Reviews three types of online bibliographic retrieval studies: evaluation studies, including online service costs, manual versus online searching and vendor comparison; use and user studies, examining various populations; and projects designed to improve user access and user aids, such as vocabulary search aids and inter-system compatibility.…

Compares LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) on SilverPlatter's CD-ROM with its replacement version, Bowker-Saur's LISA Plus. Features reviewed include entry to the databases; use of Boolean search facilities; indexes and browsing; displaying and printing records; subsidiary functions; on-screen help; and interfaces. (Contains eight…

Special types of prosthetic devices have been designed to support the specific needs of disabled and handicapped computer users in retrieving information. Of particular importance are interfaces based on the use of sound, tactile operations, and gestures. Such interfaces may be used to provide disabled people with access to hypermedia information.…

Presents preliminary data that characterizes the relationship between what users say they are trying to accomplish when using an online public access catalog (OPAC) and their perceptions of what input to give the system. Human-machine interaction is discussed, and appropriate methods for evaluating information retrieval systems are considered. (18…

Discussion of information retrieval, knowledge representation, and computer-assisted learning focuses on a study that created a computer-based system designed to observe and record users' interactions with an ideal knowledge base consisting of unrevealed subject experts, appropriate documentation, and computer files. Information accessing…

Discusses features of online public access catalogs: (1) demonstration of relationships between records; (2) provision of entry vocabularies; (3) arrangement of multiple entries on the screen; (4) provision of access points; (5) display of single records; and (6) division of catalogs into separate files or indexes. User studies and other research…

Presents an approach to developing viable image computer-human interactions (CHI) involving user metaphors for comprehending image data and methods for locating, accessing, and displaying computer images. A medical-image radiology workstation application is used as an example, and feedback and evaluation methods are discussed. (41 references) (LRW)

Discussion of user problems with navigating large spaces in virtual information environments focuses on a top-down application of semantic knowledge by the user from experiences within the sociocognitive context of information production and consumption. Considers individual differences in studies of interaction; spatial and semantic cues; and…

This research examined the communication process between users and online catalogs by gathering empirical data about user performance on different types of online catalogs. An experiment was designed to test whether content and layout of bibliographic displays influenced effectiveness of the interface between online catalogs and users. Data are…

Explores the concepts of interaction and interactivity presented in different theoretical models in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and information-seeking/searching behavior, and relates these to information retrieval (IR) research. Suggests that interaction in HCI is primarily concerned with establishing a user/system dialogue at…

The 12th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2019) is organized under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society in Montreal, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is EDM in Open-Ended Domains. As EDM has matured it has increasingly been applied to open-ended and ill-defined tasks…

The Subject Access Research Project was initiated by OCLC in August 1979 to study the process of subject searching in the library catalog, with the objective of identifying features for an automated subject retrieval system which would support the present search tactics employed by library users performing manual subject searches at the library…

This paper describes how a language for building information systems that is being developed by the Office for Research at OCLC can be linked to an artificial intelligence environment, Poplog. The demonstration system--ISIS (Intelligent Support for Interface systems)--shows how Poplog could provide some intelligent support for a D interface,…

A brief review is provided of the strategy, information services, seminars, demonstrations, software acquisition policy, educational development, and cooperative efforts of the CEDAR Project, which aims to encourage and facilitate the development and effective use of educational computing within Imperial College, the University of London, and…

A translating-computer-interface approach to providing a common, or virtual-system, mode of access to a network of heterogeneous online bibliographic retrieval systems has been investigated. Enhanced access to such systems by end users has been demonstrated through test usage of an experimental interface. A table-driven, rule-based message…