The relevance assessments belonging to the Cranfield II document/query collection are shown to be faulty, in the sense that many" relevant documents were not so identified by the Cranfield judges. 9 references. (Author)

The second objective of the catalog is to show which editions are in a library. Two interpretations of this statement are contrasted: that of Akos Domanovszky, which represents current standard practice, and an alternative, which calls for extensive analysis of serials and collections, and explicit identification of publications with identical…

Explores differences in precision of terms used in subject access in the humanities, differentiating by the exactness with which the phenomena designated can be located in space and time. Samples of 200 terms from seven indexes in the humanities are classified according to five categories of terms. Six tables present results of data analyses. (22…

Investigates vocabulary of the humanities by analyzing terms used as entry points in leading encyclopedias and dictionaries in humanities. Categories that distinguish entry terms by precision and potential for effectiveness in subject access are proposed and a sample of entry terms is classified into these categories. Thirty-five sources are…

Comments are made on several specific questionable aspects of experimental design in the Second Cranfield project." 8 references. (Author)

Discusses the need for a subject cataloging code in order to evaluate subject catalog effectiveness, take advantage of online technologies, and keep the subject headings list current. Impediments to a code, both practical and philosophical, are identified. Practical suggestions for improving subject cataloging without a theoretical code are…

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…

An evaluation of the "Modern Language Association of America International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures" (MLAIB) was undertaken to determine whether it might index large pools of social science research. It was compared with 11 social science periodical indexes and bibliographies for journal…

Describes efforts to maintain scholarly and scientific collaboration in France during Germany's occupation (1940-44). The Subgroup for Library Protection, established by the Germans, is explained; the exchange of scientific journals between Germany and France is discussed; and two indexing services for scientific literature are described, one…

Documents the reasons for embargoes of academic journals in full text databases (i.e., publisher-imposed delays on the availability of full text content) and provides insight regarding common misconceptions. Tables present data on selected journals covering a cross-section of subjects and publishers and comparing two full text business databases.…

Describes a study of 20 American historians that was conducted to better understand the nature of research in history. Highlights include choice of research topics, use of archives, writing habits, use of computers, the classification of historical knowledge, implications for libraries, and suggestions for future studies. (43 references) (LRW)

Discussion of the information-seeking behavior of humanists focuses on a study that investigated the efficacy of following bibliographic references from documents already known. Topics include the nature of humanities research; vocabulary control and indexing; subject-based literature searches; seed documents; relevance; retrieval based on…

This article reports the results of a quantitative and thematic content analysis of the organization of information literature in the "Library Quarterly" ("LQ") between its inception in 1931 and 2004. The majority of articles in this category were published in the first half of "LQ's" run. Prominent themes have included cataloging codes and the…

Reports a study that analyzed natural language search statements constructed by 22 Getty Visiting Scholars as they researched humanities topics on DIALOG. Results show a greater use of names, geographical areas, chronological periods, and discipline terms than scientists use, with implications for the design of humanities online systems and…