Presents 1992 sales of microcomputer systems by vendor. Customer support services, a new interchange format for MARC records, vendor market share and other statistics, foreign sales, and large and small systems are discussed. Profiles of 14 vendors, a chart of compatible system interfaces by vendor, and a directory of microcomputers sources are…

As the European Community forms a single market, guidance and counseling can take on transnational roles. Computers have the potential to link people beyond national borders, improving access to education and employment information and facilitating mobility. (SK)

Provides brief descriptions of Gopher, Veronica, Jughead, and Archie, four free tools designed to locate electronic information resources on the Internet. Basic directions for using each of the four tools are provided. (KRN)

Describes the EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) system developed for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for SEC disclosure filings. Ownership and control of the database, hardware, and software is considered; the Information Industry Association position is described; and the need for greater public access to…

The resource directory on augmentative/alternative communication resources lists 12 assistive technology resources, 13 assistive technology data sources, 45 resources offering assistance on communication aids, and 91 sources of electronic and nonelectronic communication aids. (DB)

Major categories of national higher education data are outlined and descriptions and sources are provided for over 50 databases. Categories include institutional descriptors, enrollments/completions, student demography, student longitudinal data, financial aid, institutional financial support, tuition/fees, faculty/staff salaries and benefits,…

Explores the use of analog optical disks as a practical, cost effective means of building picture databases. Questions that should be asked to determine whether optical disk is a suitable picture storage alternative for a particular application are identified and three implementation issues--imaging, indexing, and integrating--are discussed. (CLB)

Reviews and expands on a 1985 study that described a detailed evaluation of the effectiveness of an operational full-text information retrieval system, STAIRS, which was used by IBM for litigation support. Problems the user faces are described, and recall/precision studies are discussed. (27 references) (LRW)

Reporting occupies a central place in institutional research but is ongoing and never completed. With automation and data management, the proportion of time spent on either routine or ad hoc reporting should decline. This function need not draw unnecessarily from resources for more interesting work. (MSE)

Explores the 1988 "Books in Print Plus" (BIP Plus) CD-ROM database to determine broad characteristics of material currently in print in U.S. book trade in terms of publication year; price; language; and audience, grade level, and illustration. Accuracy and potential of BIP Plus as a tool for generating data and testing hypotheses…

Examines the cooperative efforts of the Western Library Network (WLN) and its members to maintain authority control over its central bibliographic database. The first section describes authority maintenance activities performed by WLN centrally, and the second describes the contribution of an individual member library--the Washington State…

Describes a system that was developed in Germany for natural language processing (NLP) to improve free text analysis for information retrieval. Techniques from empirical linguistics are discussed, system architecture is explained, and rules for dealing with conjunctions in dependency analysis for free text processing are proposed. (13 references)…

The conceptual basis for structured data architecture, and its integration with open systems technology at Indiana University, are described. Key strategic goals guiding these efforts are discussed: commitment to improved data access; migration to relational database technology, and deployment of a high-speed, multiprotocol network; and…

A University of Miami (Florida) project to centralize imaging/document management is described. The system will enable document storage, retrieval, and work-flow management, lower costs, and improve on traditional business practices. Benefits of imaging/document management, the rationale for centralizing, and the three-phase implementation plan…

Reports on the development of a prototype computerized abstractor's assistant called TEXNET, a text network management system. Features of the system discussed include semantic dependency links; displays of text structure; basic text editing; extracting; weighting methods; and listings of frequent words. (Contains 25 references.) (LRW)