Numerous easily accessible databases cover almost every subject area in the humanities. The principal database resources in the humanities are described. There are two major database vendors for humanities information: BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval Services) and DIALOG Information Services, Inc. As an introduction to online searching, this article…

One hundred sixty-one MEDLINE searches conducted by third year medical students were analyzed and evaluated to determine which search behaviors were used, whether those individual moves are effective, and whether there is a relationship between specific search behaviors and the effectiveness of the search strategy as a whole. The typical search…

This booklet covers the development of Unesco's General Information Program (PGI), which was created in 1977 to insure a coherent development of Unesco's work in the areas of scientific and technological information, documentation, libraries, and archives. A description of the history of the organization and its predecessors, the structure of the…

This book is designed to assist the beginning searcher of those online systems that primarily provide information in the form of bibliographic citations. These systems also contain files in other formats that are designed to provide answers to reference-type questions. It is intended not only to provide basic "how-to" information on the…

Nova University requires of its candidates for graduate education degrees completion of practicums, school-based problem-solving research projects. This requirement contributes to the development of school teachers and administrators as change agents. This collection contains abstracts of 923 practicum reports completed by Nova graduate students,…

In the academic year 1987-1988, the administration at Fort Hays University announced its commitment to emphasizing computer literacy for all students. In response to the new administrative policies, the departments of history and earth science required their students to conduct an online search in preparation for a major research paper as part of…

This policy statement begins by presenting the objectives of the Reference Collection Policy for Rutgers University's Alexander Library: (1) to describe the current state of the collection; (2) to articulate the goals of the collection; and (3) to provide users of the library with a clear and concise explanation of what is and is not included in…

The popularity of DIALOG database searching causes problems when requestors do not understand how the service operates or how to fill out a search request. This report describes the implementation of a computer-aided instructional (CAI) program, which was developed using the UTAH PILOT programming language, to convey basic information about DIALOG…

This study reports and compares patron usage rates from January 1987 to May 1988 for three separate ERIC database systems at the library at Texas Woman's University (TWU): (1) online searches of the ERIC file through the mainframe computers of DIALOG Information Services (DIALOG ERIC), which are offered in the library reference department by…

This oversight hearing was held to review the status of the 21-year-old Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) program, which is administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in the U.S. Department of Education, and to hear administration proposals for the redesign of the ERIC system. This report of the hearing…

This study made three comparisons: (1) online searching on a native command language vs. searching with a commercial front end system; (2) end user searching vs. mediated searching; and (3) searching an education database vs. an engineering database. The results show end user searching to be as satisfactory as mediated searching. (93 references)…

Describes an experiment that examined the relationship between successful searching of CD-ROM databases by undergraduate students and various types of instruction provided by the library staff. The findings indicate that the only level of instruction that resulted in a significant difference was a live demonstration of searches. (six references)…

Describes a prototype current awareness service for college faculty and staff which is based on online bibliographic databases and tables of contents from selected periodical holdings for the selective dissemination of information. The discussion reports patterns of use, types of documents selected, delivery patterns, and the overall effectiveness…

Describes a survey of science and engineering faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago that investigated their use of paper and electronic services that offer bibliographic access to research literature. The impact of the availability of locally mounted databases is discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. (eight…

Demonstrates a means for estimating the number of retrieved items using well-established selective dissemination of information (SDI) profiles in the SCI, INSPEC, ISMEC, CAS, and PASCAL databases. A correlation between individual database size and number of retrieved documents in technical fields is also examined. (17 references) (LAE)