Reviews the development of research and evaluation in information retrieval. Highlights include the Cranfield projects concerning recall and precision, the Medlars experiment that focused on relevance, TREC (Text Retrieval Conference), evaluation versus understanding, interface versus functionality, document length, and terms and user interaction.…

Presents a stratified model of information retrieval interaction that views interaction as a dialog between participants (user and computer) through an interface. Discusses traditional and interaction models, and extension to relevance, user modeling, search term selection, and types of feedback in information retrieval. (AEF)

This paper outlines work on a class of systems called Personal Information Management Assistants (PIMAs). PIMAs observe user interaction with everyday applications and use these observations to anticipate a user's information needs. They then automatically fulfill these needs by accessing Internet information sources, filtering the results, and…

Discussion of information retrieval in the humanities focuses on a study of 10 graduate students at Indiana University as they conducted literature searches using databases on CD-ROM. Highlights include a review of related literature, search strategies, relevance assessments, human-computer interaction, and databases and indexing. (LRW)

Describes a study that observed undergraduates as they searched bibliographic databases on a CD-ROM local area network. Topics include related research, information needs, evolution of search topics, database selection, search strategies, relevance judgments, CD-ROM interfaces, and library instruction. (Author/LRW)