Results of this study comparing coverage and features of Psychological Abstracts and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) online databases demonstrate a 49 percent citation overlap between the files. A complementary, not competitive, relationship is indicated by comparing citation overlap, journal coverage, descriptive indexing, treatment of…

Reports on a comparative study of the postcoordinate retrieval effectiveness of Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Preserved Context Indexing System (PRECIS). Data are presented in six tables and one figure, and a reference list is included. (Author/JL)

A series of experiments determined whether thesauri enhance the retrieval of Chinese documents and automatic indexing can compete with manual indexing in a Chinese information retrieval system (CIRS). Statistical analysis of recall and precision measures suggest that relational thesauri do improve retrieval and that automatic indexing is…

Discussion of hypermedia systems focuses on a comparison of two types of adaptive algorithm (genetic algorithm and neural network) in clustering hypermedia documents. These clusters allow the user to index into the nodes to find needed information more quickly, since clustering is "personalized" based on the user's paths rather than…

Describes a study that compared the coverage of the nursing profession, subject heading specificity, and ease of retrieval of the MEDLINE and Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL) online databases. The strengths and weaknesses of each database are discussed and hints for searching on both databases are provided. (four references) (CLB)

Presents a method for measuring the quality of controlled vocabularies that involves identifying clusters of documents, searching for each document, identifying terms used to index each document, and calculating certain measures to determine indexing quality. The results of a comparison of three library and information science databases using this…

Explores the qualities of bibliographic and object entities that contribute to the similarities and differences in the data describing them and the possibility of cooperation between indexers of art objects and indexers of bibliographic information. The discussion covers the role of authority control as the linking component between bibliographic…

Explores the underlying concepts involved in the design of art scholarly databases and describes three systems definition projects currently in progress. The discussion covers the revisions of MARC formats and authority controls used in bibliographic information networks that might support an art scholarly database. (eight references) (CLB)

Discusses the results of a survey of 255 librarians and college professors that was conducted to determine their preferences regarding three back-of-the-book index features: word-by-word versus letter-by-letter alphabetizing; line-by-line versus run-on subheading arrangement; and see references versus duplicate entries. (Contains 25 references.)…

Syntagmatic relationships receive less attention than paradigmatic relationships in the development and study of index languages. Exposes misperceptions in linguistic characterization of syntagmatic relationships, and proposes the expansion to include conceptual syntagmatic relationships (CSRs), and characterizes CSRs to determine their role in…

Describes research that was conducted to determine and then compare which Anglo American Cataloging 2 (AACR2) rules were used to assign access points for random samples of monographs in chemistry and in economics. Implications for automatic cataloging using expert systems are explored, and suggestions for further studies are given. (10 references)…

Intended to provide the nursing community with a comparative analysis of four major computerized document retrieval systems and one manual system providing coverage of the nursing literature, this study compares the indexing vocabulary, database coverage, and retrieval performance of the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC),…

Presented is an analysis of what has been done regarding the preservation of alternative publications in microfilm. The alternative press was defined, for the purposes of this study, as "nonstandard, nonestablishment publications." Two projects undertaken to microfilm such publications, one by the Microphoto Division of Bell and Howell…

This study was designed to explore the practicality, flexibility, reliability, and sensitivity of the Criterion Group Method of measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of indexing, a method using a criterion group to set the standard for "ideal" indexing. These major variables were examined: (1) size of document sample, (2) size of…

A computer program called TEXAN (Textual Analysis of Language Samples) was developed for use in calculating frequency of characters, words, punctuation units, and stylistic variables. Its usefulness in determining readability levels was examined in an analysis of language samples from 20 elementary tradebooks used as supplementary reading…