Information Retrieval List Digest 212 (May 9) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-212 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 May 9, 1994 Volume XI, Number 19 Issue 212 ********************************************************** I. QUERIES A. Requests for Information 1. Seeking Information on Mass Storage Technologies B. Q & A 1. Computer Science Colleges? III. NOTICES B. Meetings 1. 14th Nat'l. Computer Conference & Exhibition 2. Reference Research Forum at ALA '95 3. ASSETS '94 Deadline Extended... IV. PROJECTS B. Bibliographies 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. QUERIES I.A.1. Fr: Peter Watkins Re: Seeking Information on Mass Storage Technologies * * Posting for a friend: * * I am seeking information regarding development of mass storage technologies such as magnetic disks, magneto-optical, floptical, WORM's, etc. For example, what publications or sources of information are available which specifically discuss the state of the art in mass storage devices? Any information which would help me orient my search would be appreciated. Please respond to RLuhr@AOL.COM, NOT me. Thanks in advance. ********** I.B.1. Fr: The Crosslers Re: Computer Sci Colleges? I am working with some Junior and Senior high school students who are particularly capable and interested in studying Computer Science in college. Can anyone direct me to a resource that recommends the top ten or so colleges or universities that excel in this field. These students' particular interest is in Computer Programming, Virtual Reality, and Robotics. ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.B.1. Fr: NCC at SAKACS00 CALL FOR PAPERS THE 14TH NATIONAL COMPUTER CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION The General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training, jointly with the Saudi Computer Society, will host the 14th National Computer Conference and Exhibition in Riyadh, from 2-6 April, 1995. The main conference theme is "Computer in Education and Training". Papers are invited in the following primary topics: * Curricula for Computer Education and Training * Teaching and Training Methods * Computer Assisted Instruction * Atuthoring Languages and Systems * Application of Multimedia Systems * Hypertext Systems * Education and Networks * Modeling and Simulation in Education and Training * Arabization and Education * Student Registration systems * Planning for Man-Power Development * Role of Private Sector in Education and Training * Applications of A.I. in Education and Training. The deadline for submitting the full paper (not more than 15 pages) is 10 September 1994. Papers should be mailed to the following address: 14th NCC, Paper Evaluation and Selection Committee, College of Computer and Information Sciences, P.O. Box 51178, Riyadh 11543, Saudi Arabia For further information and to obtain the guidelines on how to write and submit your manuscript, please contact: The Saudi Computer Society Tel: 4880707 Fax: 4881963 E.Mail: NCC@SAKACS00.Bitnet ********** III.B.2. Fr: Jim Kuhlman Re: Reference Research Forum at '95 ALA CALL FOR PAPERS The Research and Statistics Committee of the Management of Public Services Section of RASD is sponsoring a Reference Research Forum at the 1995 American Library Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, June 22-29, 1995 This is an opportunity for presenting a description of your research project. Both completed research and research in progress will be considered. The research should cover the broad area of reference services. Some suggested areas include: Organizational Structure Electronic and Online Services User Behavior Reference Effectiveness The Committee will select 3-4 papers for 20-minute presentations, followed by discussion. The criteria for selection are: * Significance of the study for improving the quality of reference service * Quality and innovativeness of the methodology * Potential of the research for filling a gap in reference knowledge or building on previous studies. All researchers, including reference practitioners from all types of libraries, library school faculty and students, and other interested persons are encouraged to submit a paper. A one-page abstract should be submitted by DECEMBER 1, 1994. Notification of acceptance will be made by March 15, 1995. Send your abstract, and name, title, and institutional affiliation to: Sharon L. Bostick, Director of Libraries University of Massachusetts at Boston 100 Morrissey Boulevard Boston, MA 02125 JIM KUHLMAN VOICE: (205) 348-5569 ASSOC. DEAN OF LIBRARIES FOR FAX: (205) 348-8833 COLLECTIONS & INFORMATION SERV. EMAIL: JKUHLMAN@UA1VM.UA.EDU UNIV. OF ALABAMA LIBRARIES BOX 870266 TUSCALOOSA, AL 35487-0266 ********** III.B.3. Fr: Ephraim P. Glinert Re: ASSETS '94 Deadline Extended! Many authors have asked for some extra time to prepare their papers for ASSETS'94, the First ACM/SIGCAPH Conference on Assistive Technologies. The reason is that the original due date was inadvertently set too close to last week's SIGCHI'94. I AM THEREFORE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS TO ASSETS'94 HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MONDAY, MAY 16. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this important change. We look forward to receiving your paper, and to seeing you at the conference! -EPG ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.A.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being related to Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer search, using BRS Information Technologies, of the Dissertation Abstracts Online database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are UMI order number, title, author, degree, year, institution; number of pages, one or more Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) subject descriptors chosen by the author, and abstract. Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-268-6090. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided. Dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG93-13241. AU DAVIS, SUSAN JOY. TI THE RESEARCH PROCESS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS. IN Northern Illinois University Ed.D. 1992, 228 pages. SO DAI v54(01), SecA, pp132. DE Education, Reading. Education, Secondary. Library Science. AB This study described the research process of 68 eighth-grade students and compared those results to a research process model of high school seniors. Research process was described as the thoughts, feelings, and actions students exhibited as they worked through their information search. The study was divided into three sections. The first section described the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the students as they were assessed by the self-report research process survey. A chi-square analysis indicated the presence of thoughts, feelings, and actions during four survey administrations, and a Time-Stage Research Model and a Model of the Research Process of Eighth-Grade Students were developed. The research models that resulted from this study indicated that the research process is a dynamic, recursive process where thoughts and actions are repeated over time and across the research stages of Initiation, Mid-point, Conclusion, and Writing. Conversely, the feelings reported by the students remained constant and were mostly positive. The second section compared the research models developed in this study to the Kuhlthau Research Process Model, a model created from a study of high school seniors. A comparison of the models validated two of Kuhlthau's assumptions: that students progress through the research process from initiation, through midpoint and conclusion, to the final writing; and that the research stage in which the student is working is a factor in the thoughts and actions present. The models were different in other respects. First, Kuhlthau's Research Process Model described the feelings of the students as changing during the research process. The models developed from this study indicated that students felt satisfied, interested, and confident throughout the research process. Another difference was that Kuhlthau's Model described a linear, static model where thoughts, feelings, and actions change at each research stage. The models developed from this study described the research process as a recursive process. The third section of this study was the comparison of the research process of below-average, average, and above-average readers. Findings indicated that below-average readers did not progress through the research stages as did the average and above-average readers. Furthermore, the above-average readers were characterized by different thoughts and actions during the research process than the other groups. In conclusion, the findings of this study indicated that research is an active, constructive process where students read, select, and synthesize text while using a variety of strategies over time. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG93-13665. AU RENEKER, MAXINE. TI INFORMATION SEEKING AMONG MEMBERS OF AN ACADEMIC COMMUNITY. IN Columbia University D.L.S. 1992, 273 pages. SO DAI v54(01), SecA, pp11. DE Information Science. Library Science. AB Using a naturalistic approach, the information-seeking activities of 31 members of the Stanford University academic community were examined over a two-week period during the 1990-91 academic year. The study's participants, called informants following an ethnographic orientation of studying individuals' behavior in the context of their environment, recorded into a microcassette tape recorder the information needs they experienced, how they went about answering them, sources of information they used, and level of satisfaction with the information. The set of 2050 information-seeking incidents gathered by this methodology was supplemented by information relating to role, urgency of query, alternative sources, and source preferences, as well as personal characteristics of the informants, such as sex, discipline, academic and scholarly interests, academic status, and cognitive style as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The textual data is analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, using ETHNOGRAPH and SPSS/PC+ software, to explore relationships among personal characteristics, perception of information environment, types of queries, sources used, and level of satisfaction obtained. The picture of information seeking which emerges shows the informants to be active information seekers who successfully negotiate and actively create their information environment to achieve a high level of satisfaction with their information-seeking activities. Informants' perception of their information environment is expressed in positive terms, and there is a close relationship between knowledge of the information environment and the sources used. Information seeking is embedded in the day-to-day activities and relationships of the participants and is triggered both by the articulation of need and availability of information. A large number of needs are satisfied by sources the informants created or organized themselves and by interpersonal information sources. The data reveal relationships between personal characteristics, type of needs, sources used, and levels of satisfaction with the sources. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG93-13579. AU DEGEORGES, PATRICIA ANN. TI LEGAL RESEARCH SKILLS OF SUMMER ASSOCIATES: EXPECTATIONS VERSUS REALITY--A CASE STUDY. IN Columbia University D.L.S. 1992, 204 pages. SO DAI v54(01), SecA, pp13. DE Library Science. Law. Education, Higher. AB A multiple-case study of summer associates' legal research competency at four large urban law firms finds that legal research skills of some of the brightest law school students are mediocre. This finding comes from a legal research quiz summer associates took at the beginning and end of their internship in 1991 and from interviews with partners, summer associates, and law librarians. Although most law schools require minimal training in legal research methods, the present training is neither rigorous nor comprehensive enough to meet the profession's needs. Law schools' actions regarding legal research training are perceived as counteracting any message administrators may articulate that legal research is important. How legal research is graded, who teaches it, the credit it carries, and the fact that the methods and tools of legal research are not integrated into the curriculum are examples of the low value placed on legal research. Law school students perceive their ability to do legal research at a higher level than do attorneys or librarians. Legal research is an integral part of lawyering and critical to the summer associate's job. A formal legal research instruction program at the firm appears to strengthen skills. Partners may be unaware of the seriousness of the problem since firm librarians bear the brunt of assisting summer associates in their research assignments and act in an unacknowledged role as mentors. While variables such as law review, previous work experience, and an advanced legal research course may improve skills, they do not appear to be absolute predictors of students' legal research competence. Faculty, practicing attorneys, and law librarians need to demonstrate as well as advocate its importance. Effective training is a joint venture involving schools, firms, librarians, providers of continuing education, and vendors of computer-assisted-legal research, who need to devote more energy, creativity, and time to train students to value, develop, practice, and refine their legal research skills. Professional associations also have an important role to play in promulgating standards for legal research competency and undertaking additional studies. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG93-15656. AU HUANG, MU-HSUAN. TI PAUSING BEHAVIOR OF END-USERS IN ONLINE SEARCHING. IN University of Maryland College Park Ph.D. 1992, 270 pages. SO DAI v54(01), SecA, pp13. DE Library Science. Education, Technology. Education, Psychology. AB This research used an information processing approach to analyze the behavior of end-users in searching online bibliographic databases, emphasizing their pausing behavior. It is based on viewing the search as a series of actions and pauses (rests). The end-users are 41 students and 3 faculty. After instruction, subjects searched throughout the semester, doing 79 searches. Nineteen did multiple searches. Pausing behavior was related to time as a measure of growing experience. Six hypotheses were supported by the results of ANOVA and t-tests: The searchers paused less frequently and for shorter periods as they progressed through searches. With more experience and practice, searchers moved more smoothly online, and the ratio of pausing to online time decreased over time. Over a series of searches or cycles within long searches, searchers gradually began to chunk more information between pauses, both in amount of time and in number of elements. Pauses related to syntax decreased over time. This study identified 250 reasons for pausing (e.g. to verify a set number, to choose appropriate term operator, to consider alternative terms) and 6 types of searches on the basis of pausing behavior. The six types of searches were highly associated with search fluency and the construction of a mental model. Types 1 and 2 describe gradations of fluent searches and Types 3 to 6 describe various slow searches. Type 1 and 2 searches were conducted by subjects who had more knowledge about the search topic and more experience in the search language and in CD-Rom searching. They generated fewer pauses and chunked more information online. They paused for shorter times and had a lower hesitation rate. The other types were conducted by subjects with less experience in the search language, in CD-Rom searching, and in the search topic. They made more syntax-related pauses (especially in the beginning of the searches), generated more and longer pauses, chunked !ess information online, and had a higher hesitation rate. Finally, as searchers gained more experience, they increased their search proficiency and became more fluent online. The changes of search level in multiple searches showed most searchers moved toward greater fluency. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG93-13069. AU SANJEEVI, AMBA. TI COMPUTER-BASED LINKING OF THESAURI. IN The University of Alabama Ph.D. 1992, 160 pages. SO DAI v54(01), SecA, pp14. DE Library Science. Information Science. AB Studies on database searching indicate that searching of multiple databases is on the increase. This searching requires the use of multiple thesauri, when a controlled vocabulary search is carried out. The use of multiple thesauri involves identification of terms in the different thesauri. The terms should be analogous to each other and substitutable for one another. The problem could be stated as: For each term in Thesaurus 1, associate a set of terms in Thesaurus 2, such that the retrieval based on the set of terms from Thesaurus 2 is as effective as the retrieval using the original term from Thesaurus 1. The study examined the feasibility of the vector-space model. The cluster-based approach was used to link terms from two thesauri, 'The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors' and the 'Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.' A set of documents, indexed by terms from the two thesauri, was identified and these common documents formed the basis of the study. Co-occurrences of ERIC and Psyc descriptors in the set of common documents were used to form clusters using the Single Link Method. The clusters contained both ERIC and Psyc terms to ensure linking at the time of clustering itself. Effectiveness of linking was checked by validating each cluster on the basis of pre-established criteria using Precision and Recall, two standard measures in information retrieval. The clusters generated were tested further on another set of documents common to both databases. It was demonstrated that the procedures developed can be used to link thesauri. The advantages of this approach are: linking is done on the basis of the thesaurus terms assigned as descriptors; flexibility in cluster formation is possible; changes in terminology or indexing policies will not affect the basic procedures developed; and problems of reconciling incompatibility among thesauri are circumvented. It was also found that (a) terms which are in a cluster or co-occur do not always exhibit thesaural relationships; (b) a term from one thesaurus is not always linked to only one term from the second thesaurus; and (c) lexically equivalent terms do not always co-occur. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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