Even in the age of Google, digital repositories can add tremendous value to an institution. Yet creating and maintaining these collections is no small task. Digital repository advocates will concede that the challenges in building and maintaining these collections can daunt even the most intrepid supporters. Three repository directors share their…

This study evaluates the usability of the Journal Finder integrated search interface, developed at the Jackson Library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This interface provides electronic access to publications including journals, newsletters, newspapers, and magazines. This study was conducted to determine how intuitive and…

It is proposed that the conversational language used in interactive retrieval systems should become standard, at least as far as the technical terms and symbols used by the user are concerned. If that effort is successful, a standards efforts in the area of a code of practice or recommended methods for operation could be developed. (Author)

Discussion of human-computer interaction and planned action focuses on the belief that it is impossible to consider an action without an a priori plan, even according to the phenomenological position taken for granted by the situated action theory. Reports results of a quasi-experiment that focused on plan deviation within an information seeking…

Discussion of the study of interactive information retrieval (IR) at the Text Retrieval Conferences (TREC) focuses on summaries of the Interactive Track at each conference. Describes evolution of the track, which has changed from comparing human-machine systems with fully automatic systems to comparing interactive systems that focus on the search…

The semantic web or Web 3.0 makes information more meaningful to people by making it more understandable to machines. In this article, the author examines the implications of Web 3.0 for education. The author considers three areas of impact: knowledge construction, personal learning network maintenance, and personal educational administration.…

Discussion of the online searching process identifies the formulation of a search strategy as the major problem area for users of online systems. Artificial intelligence is suggested as a solution to this problem, and several expert systems for information retrieval are described. An annotated list of 24 items for further reading is included. (23…

A computer terminal network to enable "transparent stimulation" of the user of an on-line retrieval system has been designed, implemented, and pilot tested. Its basic purpose is to provide a suitable and effective framework and methodology for experimental identification/validation of those human characteristics which should be…

A collection of computer programs to do chemical information retrieval are described in terms of the interactions between the computer and the chemist. In interacting with the computer, the chemist can graphically specify two-dimensional structures as queries and view structures as search results. (18 references) (Author/NH)

Discusses the possibility and usefulness of applying Habermas' universal pragmatics to analyze information retrieval interaction. Examines current studies of human computer interaction (HCI) and presents a case study that investigated the initiation and development of verification of validity claims in HCI from the universal pragmatics…

A common command language has been proposed for use by systems designers and those developing new user interfaces. There is controversy over the appropriateness of a standard command language, and those who are working in artificial intelligence believe that natural language interfaces will make it unnecessary for users to learn such a language,…

This investigation shows that search keys derived from personal author names possess a sufficient degree of distinctness to be employed in an efficient computerized interactive index to a file of MARC II catalog records having 167,745 personal author entries. (8 references) (Author)

An informal survey was conducted, tapping the opinions of scientists doing research related to the features that should or should not be included in the man-machine interface of interactive bibliographic search and retrieval (IBSR) systems. An analysis of the responses showed a significant level of agreement concerning interface features. (2…

Interactive systems must be designed to furnish error information to the user and must be able to accept a modification to the input and continue to cycle until convergence on the desired output is reached. (10 references) (Author)