Discusses the issues influencing the design, implementation, and promotion of the Towers Perrin in-house text retrieval system. The discussion of factors influencing system design includes the organizational culture, the existing computer and communications network, and the availability of text retrieval software. Suggestions for in-house systems…

Reports on a pilot study in which a proposed design model was developed to characterize intergroup communication among designers, developers, and users. Design roles, themes, and networks based on two histories of design situations are described for several design phases; and future work is suggested. (24 references) (LRW)

The .edu domain was originally intended for use by all educational levels. Since 1993, however, .edu names have been technically reserved for four-year institutions of higher education, leaving .us, .org or .net domains for two-year colleges. Nevertheless, 20% of 400 .edu names currently held by community colleges have been awarded since 1993.…

Different people have a diversity of needs and expectations when approaching an information retrieval system, and providing people with the ease and efficiency to access information is important when designing systems. By examining the man-machine interface from the cognitive viewpoint, it is possible to investigate how a person interacts with an…

Reviews the background, concepts, and role of hypermedia systems and analyzes essential, expected, and desirable features of hypermedia in order to provide a basis for system design and evaluation. Four hypermedium shells and systems are described, and approaches to user interface problems are discussed. (48 references) (MES)

Describes the development and implementation of a full-text image retrieval system at the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. The conversion of card formats to a microcomputer-based system using HyperCard is described; the online system architecture is explained; and future plans are discussed, including conversion to digital images. (LRW)

Describes a microcomputer-based microfilm management system that has been developed in a medium-sized manufacturing firm's library in Hong Kong. The system configuration is explained, a design and selection plan for a microfilm format is discussed, a selection plan for hardware is described, and an indexing system is explained. (nine references)…

Purpose: Many researchers require access to computer facilities beyond those offered by desktop workstations. Traditionally, these are offered either through partnerships, to share the cost of supercomputing facilities, or through purpose-built cluster facilities. However, funds are not always available to satisfy either of these options, and…

Describes a prototype automated collection analysis system developed at OCLC that allows a library to compare its collection with both predefined and evaluator defined peer groups. Eight library applications for such comparisons are listed, and the system design goals and areas needing further development are discussed. (five references)…

Describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a voice interface for the British Library Blaise Online Information Retrieval System. Results of the evaluation show that the use of currently available speech recognition and synthesis hardware, along with intelligent software, can provide an interface well suited to the needs of online…

Discusses how the World-Wide Web (WWW) can be linked to the PAT system, a search engine supporting access to Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) encoded documents. Technical concepts are reviewed, and the operation of a PAT-to-Web gateway is explained using examples of how it is employed. (JKP)

The PRODIGY/EBL system [Minton88] was one of the first works to directly attack the problem of strategy utility. The problem of finding effective strategies was reduced to the problem of finding effective rules. However, this paper illustrates limitations of the approach. There are two basic difficulties. The first arises from the fact that the…

This working paper provides suggestions and considerations for anyone contemplating the electronic collection of data on foreign scholars (as distinct from international students). It is noted that, because the Immigration and Naturalization Service requires employment verification and immigration information such as country of citizenship and…

This report defines the functions of computer-managed learning (CML) as (1) test generation, correction, and analysis; (2) record keeping and reporting; (3) routing learners through a set of learning activities; and (4) charting learner progress for a variety of purposes. It then describes the hardware characteristics and configuration of three…

This ERIC Digest examines some of the trends and issues in academic information systems design and describes the policies of several universities that are taking creative advantage of these systems as educational tools. The current emphasis on microcomputers in campus information networks instead of terminals connected to a mainframe computer is…