In this fourth of five course installments, statements by four practitioners and researchers on role of Library of Congress (LC) and its subject headings in improving subject access to United States libraries are presented. Comments from LC and a tabulation of suggestions from 10 respondents are included. (EJS)

Designed for educators requesting information from ERIC and for the search intermediary who channels educators' requests to a search service, this updated guide explains in non-technical language the steps involved in preparing a computer search for the ERIC database. A beginning section on how to initiate a search discusses the choice of a…

Examines the reasons why "more" subject access in online catalogs is not necessarily "better" and recommends that librarians prepare a statement informing users of what they need to know before using the catalog and how best to make use of its listing. (EM)

The emphasis of this text is that the problems of information retrieval are the intellectual ones of subject analysis and description. These problems are not easily solved by technology alone, although certain inroads are being made by knowledge-based expert systems and other computer aids to indexing. Linguistic approaches are also showing…

This course syllabus for a continuing education course for health science librarians introduces the MEDLARS system, the MEDLINE database, and the Index Medicus. Designed to enable health science librarians to discriminate between the capabilities of manual searching and online retrieval, an overview is given of the nature and scope of MEDLINE and…

Discusses criteria for evaluating microcomputer database management systems (DBMS) used for storage and retrieval of bibliographic data. Two popular types of microcomputer DBMS--file management systems and relational database management systems--are evaluated with respect to these criteria. (Author/MBR)

Designed to be a foundation work, this book about information storage and retrieval includes discussions of theory as well as descriptions of practice. It is intended for: (1) students at both the graduate and non-graduate level who are beginning formal studies of librarianship/information science; (2) staff of library/information units who have…

Three problems in online searching in women's studies are type of indexing, database quality, and adequacy of coverage. Results of a recent study show there is significant end-user satisfaction and the searches done are described in order to promote greater and more effective use of online retrieval in women's studies. (Author/EM)

Proposes a rationale to be used in comparing and evaluating alternative library computer catalogs, based on varieties of bibliographic data processed, kinds of indexes constructed, and desired search strategies. A glossary of terms related to computerized catalogs is appended. (Author/CLB)

A survey at the University of Houston examined factors related to subject searching success in online catalogs, including: extent of subject searching; response to unsuccessful searches; reasons subject search is not used; users' awareness of sources of subject terms; and suggestions from users for improving subject searching capabilities. (CLB)

This paper presents a synthesis of the ideas and issues developed at a conference convened to review the results of the Dewey Decimal Classification Online Project and explore the potential for future use of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and Library of Congress Classification (LCC) schedules in online library catalogs. Conference…

Expected Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) and assigned LCSHs for 161 books requested by faculty in sociology, anthropology, and social work were compared to gauge the likely success of an online subject catalog search for those works. For 80% of the titles checked, inspection of the ninth edition of "Library of Congress Subject…

The use of locally produced dissertations by extramural scholars was examined in four Ohio academic libraries. The results include identification of users by type of institution; purpose for which the dissertations were used; and tools and approaches successfully used in identifying and locating the desired dissertations. (CLB)

Suggests ways that the school library media specialist can help students become more successful as users of online information. Four types of barriers to becoming informed are described: (1) indicative access barriers (indexing systems and relevance); (2) physical access to documents identified in a search; (3) linguistic barriers; and (4)…