Presents three different statistical techniques for identifying content-bearing phrases within a natural language database. Describes results on the effectiveness of the scoring methods when applied to MEDLINE phrases, and how the three methods can be combined to improve performance. Processing results for an example document are provided.…

The personal computer--with its ability to store, sort, and retrieve large amounts of data, generate reports, and graphically present statistical information--is becoming an integral tool in the administration of the modern media center. The need to share and retrieve information beyond the immediate environment of the media center has always been…

This manual has been produced to familiarize data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the first follow-up dropout component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Necessary documentation is also provided for use of the data files. The base-year population covered by the NELS:88 included…

This document contains a compilation of overhead projection sheets from an International Labour Office (ILO) Training Course in Micro-ISIS held in March 1988, augmented by explanatory text and applications to a wide variety of databases. It is designed both to provide a visual, didactic approach to Micro-ISIS, and to constitute a quick-reference…

Prospective student data, supplied by various national college testing and student search services, can be matched with existing student records in a college admissions database. Instead of relying on one unique record identifier, such as the student's social security number, a technique has been developed that is based on a number of common data…

Introduces some algorithmic methods, for which no pre-editing is necessary, for automatically "lemmatising" raw text (changing raw text to an equivalent version in which all inflected words are artificially transformed to their dictionary look-up form). The results of a study of these methods, which used a German Text, are also given. (KM)

The purpose of this document is to highlight the major technical issues of interconnection within a broad based, multi-function, multi-user bibliographic data interchange network in Canada, and to indicate specific areas where development work of a technical nature needs to be undertaken. Recent systems development in the U.S. and Canada is…

The use of computers in retrieving bibliographic chemical information is traced through the SDI, batch, and online modes, and related changes are noted in such areas as data base availability, cost, software, and amount of user control. The impact of these changes on both the quality and quantity of chemical information use is discussed, as well…

This report on the multidisciplinary PASCAL database describes the files and the indexing rules for chemistry, biology, and medicine. PASCAL deals with all aspects of chemistry within two subfiles whose combined yearly growth is about 100,000 references. The Biopascal file, organized in the two subfiles of Plant Science and Biology and Medicine,…

User perception of data importance and the economic feasibility of hardware and storage devices will determine the future direction of online systems. A retrieval system's functions are ultimately dictated by database design. Early online sytems were designed for bibliographic information limited to citations only using sequential files. When…

Student data banks for ongoing research and evaluation have been implemented by a number of professional schools. Institutions selecting software designs for the establishment of such systems are often faced with making their choice before all the possible uses of the system are determined. Making software design decisions involves "rational"…

This paper proposes construction of a separate data base environment for university planning information, distinct from data bases and systems supporting operational functioning and management. The data base would receive some of its input from the management information systems (MIS)/transactional data bases and systems through a process of…

Privacy is defined and its various social implications discussed in the first part of this paper. The effect of a National Data Center (NDC) and computerized dossiers about people and their past is also considered. It is determined that a computerized information system would present at least four distinct problems to individual identity or…

The School District of Philadelphia has had a continuously maintained computerized data system for its 270,000 pupils since 1967. This paper outlines: the general procedures and descriptions of the file; the need for establishing a pupil data-base file; the systems products and services; its value to research and evaluation as well as to the…

A subset of data base management techniques for the hardware/software functions necessary to support a management information system are discussed. Seven basic dimensions of data base design are: (1) data base life span, (2) logical record growth, (3) record content growth, (4) data set organization, (5) linkages, (6) design criteria and (7)…