Proposes a method for protein name extraction from biological texts. The method exploits hand-crafted rules based on heuristics and a set of protein names (dictionary). The approach avoids use of natural language processing tools so as to improve processing speed. Evaluation experiments were conducted in terms of: accuracy, generalizability, and…

Describes a methodology for collecting and extracting linguistic forms from documents authored by healthcare consumers. The forms were mapped to concepts and the resulting terms were analyzed. Although the case study uses examples from a "consumer medical vocabulary," procedures are applicable to investigating non-professional vocabularies in…

Examines possible sources of bias in the citation process and discusses consequences they may have on researchers. Discusses subjective and biased choice of citations; whether to cite reviews or original publications; citation errors; and whether citation analysis is a good measure of quality. Concludes citation analysis may be far from ideal way…

Examines how librarians are customizing their services and collections for handheld computing. Discusses the widest adoption of PDAs (personal digital assistants) in libraries that serve health and medical communities; PDA-friendly information pages; the reference focus; journals and databases; lending materials; publicity; use of PDAs by library…

Analyzes information-seeking behavior by university academics at Moi University (Kenya). Results established that faculty depend on the library and on colleagues for information in spite of a lack of awareness of information services and nonuse of current awareness services. A copy of the questionnaire used is appended. (Author/LRW)

Describes developments in the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Chemistry's Library and Information Centre that has changed from a professional and learned society library into a business center. Development of a priced information service, electronic sources of information including online databases and the Internet, and marketing and promotion…

Describes how reference-based instruction can be incorporated into an instructional system design. Provides specific examples of learning objectives and student exercises. Defines reference-based instruction and outlines its benefits. Lists guidelines for how to structure usability tests for Help systems. Advises how technical communicators can…

Introduces a novel approach to unsupervised text summarization. Proposes an "information-centric" approach to evaluation, where the quality of summaries is judged not in terms of how well they match human-created summaries but in terms of how well they represent their source documents in information retrieval tasks such as document…

Using citations, papers and references as parameters a relatedness factor (RF) is computed for a series of journals. Sorting these journals by the RF produces a list of journals most closely related to a specified starting journal. The method appears to select a set of journals that are semantically most similar to the target journal. The…

Discussion of searching for information on the Web focuses on resources that are not always found by traditional Web searches. Describes sources on the hidden Web, including full-text databases, clearinghouses, digital libraries, and learning objects; explains how search engines operate; and suggests that traditional print sources are still…

Surveys 82 Alabama legislators and finds officials' views of the press as adversary or agent of consensus relates to perceived value of media for job-relevant information. Suggests a dysfunction of the "watch-dog" role because those believing the consensus model found the press more useful than those seeing the press as an adversary. (MG)

Maintains that in recent years there has been an increasing interest in the history of art education and art education associations. Describes how the Texas Art Education Association has collected and documented material from its past. Points out that art education students can use this information to place current trends in perspective. (KM)

Selected collections of scientific and technical archives and manuscripts described in eight articles include the Edison Archives; American Museum of Natural History Library; MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Institute Archives and Special Collections; National Archives; Dard Hunter Paper Museum; American Zoo and Aquarium Archives; and…

The roles of the academic department and of teaching assistants (TAs) in improving the quality of TA instruction are reviewed. Strategies include making available teaching guides designed for beginning teachers, holding instructional seminars, conducting activities to acculturate foreign and U.S. students to each other's approaches, and specifying…

Conducted year-long study of 207 low-income Black youth to determine their perceptions of family relationships, thereby identifying family members who had most potential for encouraging contraceptive responsibility and for influencing adolescents' decisions about becoming sexually active. Also studied dating and sexual behavior, attitudes toward…