Describes the Electronic Journal Retrieval Project (EJRP) developed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries, to provide full-text journal articles from online systems. Highlights include costs of various search strategies; implications for library services; collection development and interlibrary loan considerations; and suggestions…

Results are reported from a study that investigated the extent to which academic library end users conducted multiple search sessions with online public access catalogs or CD-ROM databases at different stages of their information seeking related to a research project. Implications for training, retrieval systems design, and further research are…

Discusses the issues surrounding the selection and mounting of University Microfilms'"Periodical Abstracts" on the University of Hartford's integrated library system. Argues that increased access provided by loading tapes on the mainframe computer outweigh the disadvantages of poor print features and narrower scope when compared to the…

Identifies problems that undergraduate searchers encountered in a search of the ERIC database on CD-ROM. Results of participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews are reported; a taxonomy of user problems is proposed that includes syntactic errors and semantic errors; and recommendations for menu selection systems, online help, and…

Describes the Adonis project, a CD-ROM database of biomedical journal articles that was designed to investigate ways in which publishers could maintain the income they received from publishing scientific journals. User studies are described that were conducted at University College London to evaluate user satisfaction with Adonis searches. (five…

Discussion of information skills and library skills instruction focuses on a study of the information retrieval process used by grade six children in New Zealand. Selection of keywords, use of the card catalog, and location of books using the Dewey Decimal system are investigated, and the role of cognitive skills is discussed. (17 references) (LRW)

Reports on a study of the information searching behavior of 35 high school students. Problems that the students had searching an online catalog are identified, and implications for instruction are considered. (EAM)

Describes a survey of academic librarians that investigated issues relating to CD-ROM indexes, including print index cancellations; cost versus other factors in cancellations; database vendors' charging structure; CD-ROM durability; student preference for CD-ROM over print; and effective use without librarian assistance. (22 references) (LRW)

Examines the effects of CD-ROM on academic library reference work. Topics discussed include the impact on job duties of the reference librarian; impact on users; system drawbacks; location of equipment; search strategies of users versus librarians; budgetary concerns; and future ramifications, including networking and electronic publishing. (10…

Describes how automation has transformed the library and how super-catalogs have affected the process of doing research. Explains how faculty and librarians can work together to help students to use the available databases effectively, by teaching them Boolean logic, standard record formats, filing rules, etc. (DMM)

The growing body of research investigating how people search for or locate information in a variety of materials is reviewed and extended. Although the nature of materials and the complexity of locating tasks varies in the seven articles, each aims to elucidate the conditions that affect search processes. (SLD)

Analyzes the attitudes that humanistic students and scholars typically display toward information technology and discusses the effect they have on bibliographic instruction. Highlights include information needs versus available technology; needs assessment; necessary concepts and skills; search strategies; searching skills; and instructional…

Describes institutes developed at Rutgers University to introduce practicing librarians to the information search process from the user's perspective. Highlights included library search sessions followed by small and large group discussions, presentations on the theoretical foundations of the search process, and developing plans for libraries'…

Describes a bibliographic instruction project at the University of Central Florida that addressed the information needs of upper-division and graduate business students in case study classes. Cooperative arrangements between a database vendor (Predicasts), librarians, and the management faculty are described and the objectives of the project are…

This study examined the use and perceived importance of the Internet among students and faculty in the Netherlands through questionnaires and focus-group interviews. Highlights include electronic journals, learning to use the Internet, search engines, needed library support, and problems with subject searching. A copy of the questionnaire is…