Discusses software design issues for Okapi, an information retrieval system that incorporates both search engine and user interface and supports weighted searching, relevance feedback, and query expansion. The basic search system, adjacency searching, and moving toward a distributed system are discussed. (Author/LRW)

This paper discusses a generic query tool that enables an end user to query a metadata store through filters that impose search criteria on attributes. The Metadata Query Tool (MQT) is generic in the sense that it dynamically creates its user interface, based on configuration files that define the metadata scheme and the query functionalities.…

Identifies and describes methods of compiling datasets, search interfaces and etymological metaphors and mythologies of three of the first generation of automated indexing systems: archie, veronica, and robots and search engines. (Author/JKP)

Describes Windows-based multimedia authoring programs that cost less than $1000. Discusses text support, interface variety, title creation, search and retrieval capabilities, special features, platform requirements and cost, design, royalty-free use, distribution and selling. (AEF)

Outlines the generic features of enterprise information portal applications, or corporate portals, which provide users with access to internal and external information resources through a customizable Web browser interface. Examines approaches being taken by vendors, many of whom are adapting software developed for document management and…

Presents a framework for the study of hypertext. First, a historical perspective on the evolution of hypertext is provided. Next, hypertext system components are presented, and relevant psychological and pedagogical issues are analyzed. Finally, a framework for the study of hypertext, with implications for theory, research, and development, is…

Examined the use of the TREC Information Retrieval Test Collection for evaluating visual information retrieval interfaces (VIRI). Found that TREC data sets were suitable as development tools for VIRIs and traditional information retrieval systems and that the computational cost of organizing data into useful visual fields were high and related to…

Discusses a user interface that simplifies NF Squared (non-first-normal-form) relational query formulation in which query specification remains compact and straightforward. This interface allows for nesting and general hierarchical structures and restructuring which provides for more effective retrieval and query formulation. (Author/JKP)

Discusses the role of intelligent agents in facilitating the seeking and retrieval of information in Web-based library environments. Highlights include an overview of agents; current applications in library domains; an agent-based model for libraries; the design of interface agents; and implications for library policy and digital collections.…

Presents six principles for building and evaluating Web-based information retrieval interfaces: help the user develop an understanding of the interface and search process, judge the value of continuing search paths, and refine search queries or search topics; avoid complex navigation; make system actions explicit; and provide verbal labels…

Summer 1995 saw the release, with considerable media attention, of draft versions of Sun Microsystems' Java computer programming language and the HotJava browser. Java has been heralded as the latest "killer" technology in the Internet explosion. Sun Microsystems and numerous companies including Microsoft, IBM, and Netscape have agreed…

Presents a World Wide Web page model that reacts to pre-defined events and performs actions like "prefetching" automatically. Discusses the active index, conceptual page model; design of the client system, status of the current implementation, prefetching algorithm, an experiment of the algorithm, experimental results of the active index…

This paper describes the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) guidelines for librarians charged with customizing OPAC (online public access catalog) software and vendors and producers of this software. The guidelines are intended to apply to all types of catalog, including World Wide Web-based catalogs, GUI…

E-Referencer is an expert intermediary system for searching library online public access catalogs (OPACs) on the World Wide Web. It is implemented as a proxy server that mediates the interaction between the user and Boolean OPACs. It transforms a Boolean OPAC into a retrieval system with many of the search capabilities of Web search engines.…

This paper reports on an Old Dominion University (Virginia) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Langley Research Center project, NCSTRL+, a unified, canonical digital library (DL) for educational, scientific, and technical information (STI). NCSTRL+ is based on the Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library (NCSTRL),…