Reviews studies on the relationship between task performance and information searching by end-users, focusing on information searching in electronic environments and information retrieval systems. Topics include task analysis; task characteristics; search goals; modeling information searching; modeling search goals; information seeking behavior;…

Discusses problems facing naive users of interactive information systems (IIS) that have been identified through classroom research. Impediments to successful use of IIS are students' inability to make use of non-text-based information sources and difficulty choosing appropriate search strategies. Mental models developed by users may provide clues…

Provides contextual frameworks for the nature of information technology, the information universe, and the information search as they relate to online information retrieval. Theories on search strategy are reviewed, cognitive models of information seeking are highlighted, and future directions for research on users' search processes are discussed.…

Describes the development of an information retrieval system designed for nonspecialist users that is based on the binary vector model. The syntactic structure of phrases used for indexing is examined, queries using an experimental collection of documents are described, and precision values are examined. (19 references) (LRW)

Reviews the TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) program, considering the test results, the findings for information retrieval, and the lessons TREC offers for information retrieval evaluation. Topics include the ad hoc retrieval task; indexing models; document and query descriptions; search strategies; and the user's request as the dominant factor in…

Discussion of user-relevance judgments in information retrieval focuses on findings from four separate studies of relevance judgments by 55 users conducting their initial online search on a particular information problem. Highlights include a theoretical framework, models of relevance, and implications for information-retrieval system design and…

Introduction: Explores the complexity of online information use for learning in the culturally-diverse, information and communication technologies-intensive, higher education context. It presents a Model of responses and influences in online information use for learning, which aims to increase awareness of the complexity of online information use…

Revised to reflect changes in both DIALOG and ERIC, this second edition of a self-improvement manual for online searchers who wish to refine their skills presents three basic approaches to searching and provides illustrations from DIALOG's ERIC ONTAP database. The manual is divided into two parts: an 8-step model of the total search process which…

This report describes a preliminary attempt to explore and map the research information, products, and strategies with implications for educational policy. Since efforts were directed toward breadth rather than depth coverage, the results were more useful in identifying gaps than in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the available…

The purpose of this study was to provide some preliminary data about the information-searching behavior of the physician in order to (1) facilitate the development of models describing the search behavior and (2) provide the behavioral data necessary for the development of effective information retrieval systems for use by the medical profession.…

Describes a microcomputer-based software package, Online Search Tutor (OST), which is designed to teach users online bibliographic searching. Modeled on software previously developed for the European Space Agency Information Retrieval Services (ESA-IRS), OST includes a database of 600 bibliographic records which will simulate actual search…

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)…

The Hepatitis Knowledge Base (text of prototype information system) was used for modifying and testing "A Navigator of Natural Language Organized (Textual) Data" (ANNOD), a retrieval system which combines probabilistic, linguistic, and empirical means to rank individual paragraphs of full text for similarity to natural language queries…

Presents information retrieval design approach in which queries of computer-based system consist of sets of terms, either unweighted or weighted with subjective term precision estimates, and retrieval outputs ranked by probability of usefulness estimated by "maximum entropy principle." Boolean and weighted request systems are discussed.…

Presents a general model of the information-seeking process. Various aspects of information-seeking behavior are projected over an organizational and behavioral framework; three dimensions of information-seeking behavior are described, i.e., the conditions, the context, and the process; interactions among these dimensions are considered; and…