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The article presents the author's views on the historical development of information infrastructures and the dissemination of knowledge. The author has published a number of historical studies examining utopian schemes for managing knowledge, the evolution of institutionalized or organizational aspects of information infrastructure, and the emergence of what he thinks of as an interdiscipline. The "Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organization" was an initial study of a hitherto neglected figure. A Russian translation of this book was published in 1977 and a Spanish edition in 1996. With the advent of the Internet and the Web, it has become clear how pioneering and important historically the work of Paul Otlet and his colleagues was. It seems yet even more relevant today with the recently announced agreement between Google and a number of research libraries to digitize and make their collections available through the Web. In Information Processing and Management, "Some Schemes for Restructuring and Mobilizing Information in Documents: A Historical Perspective," the author examines the utopian information management ideas of John Dury and Samuel Hartlib.

A knowledge map of digital library ( DL) research shows the semantic organization of DL research topics and also the evolution of the field. The research reported in this article aims to find the core topics and subtopics of DL research in order to build a knowledge map of the DL domain. The methodology is comprised of a four-step research process, and two knowledge organization methods (classification and thesaurus building) were used. A knowledge map covering 21 core topics and 1,015 subtopics of DL research was created and provides a systematic overview of DL research during the last two decades (1990-2010). We argue that the map can work as a knowledge platform to guide, evaluate, and improve the activities of DL research, education, and practices. Moreover, it can be transformed into a DL ontology for various applications. The research methodology can be used to map any human knowledge domain; it is a novel and scientific method for producing comprehensive and systematic knowledge maps based on literary warrant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a bibliometric model for discarding journal volumes at academic libraries, i.e., removal to offsite storage as part of the library's serials collection. The method is based on the volume as the unit of measurement and on user satisfaction with given titles. The discarding age, calculated for each volume, from the year of publication to the year of decision to discard, is dependent on citation half-life, relative productivity, knowledge area, and residual utility (potential consultations). The model makes it possible to predict the approximate size of a collection when a stationary state is reached in which the inflow of journal volumes is equal to the outflow from discarding. The model is also able to determine the rate of growth of the holdings. This information can be used to optimize future use of available space and economic and maintenance resources; thus promoting efficient management of the collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Users' queries for visual information in American history were studied to identify the image attributes important for retrieval and the characteristics of users' queries for images. The queries were collected from 38 faculty and graduate students of American history in 1999 in a local setting. Pre- and post-test questionnaires and interview were employed to gather users' requests and search terms. The Library of Congress American Memory photo archive was used to search for images. Thirty-eight natural language statements, 185 search terms provided by the participants, and 219 descriptors indicated by the participants in relevant retrieved records were analyzed to find the distribution of subject content of users' queries. Over half of the search requests fell into the category "general/nameable needs." It was also found that most image content was described in terms of kind of person, thing, event, or condition depending on location or time. Title, date, and subject descriptors were mentioned as appropriate representation of image subject content. The result of this study suggests the principle categories of search terms for users in American history, suggesting directions for the development of indexing tools and system design for image retrieval systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OMB Circular No. A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources, sets basic policy for the management of information and Information technology by Federal agencies. The circular makes a distinction and explains the relation between access to information and dissemination of information. Further work on application of the Circular's general principles will focus especially on electronic filing and the proper roles of the public and private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to reconstruct, from the material available to the author, the concept of the national system of scientific, technical, and organizational information in Poland. A new approach to the system was formally introduced in 1974 and is now a subject of extensive debate among Polish librarians and information specialists. The network might be of interest to some Western readers for its unique scope, and for its professional and political implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A definite need exists for an absolute and uniform means of comparison and evaluation of certain characteristics of various information retrieval systems. This paper is concerned only with the system's ability to satisfy queries; the effort and time used, and their relative costs, are not considered. Some past procedures that have been used are reviewed and discussed, along with some of the difficulties that arise when these procedures are followed. We present some desirable characteristics for a meaningful measure of effectiveness, then analyze in detail one such measure that may be used to compare the retrieval capabilities of a large variety of systems. This measure, called the "normalized sliding ratio," has a relation to the classical recall and precision ratios and may be looked on as a generalization of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a bibliography of documentation which appears regularly in the journal "American Documentation." One of the notes provides that the Division of Biological Sciences of the National Science Foundation, for administrative purposes, has departed from conventional terminology, such as biochemistry, biophysics and physiology, in its system for grouping research projects into categories. For this purpose, biological sciences have been divided into areas covering the full spectrum of biology with the molecule at one extreme and the psyche at the other.

The article reports that the annual meeting of the American Documentation Institute will take place in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., on February 15, 1951. All sessions will be held in the Coolidge Auditorium. Dr. Raymund L. Zwemer, as chairman of the Program Committee, has planned an extraordinarily well integrated and stimulating series of papers. A special feature of the meeting will be an exhibit of documentation equipment in which will be displayed latest models of a wide range of devices useful in various aspects of documentation.

This article presents information about the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago, which was organized in July 1950. The conference was based on the subject of bibliographic organization. The program consisted of the presentation of fourteen papers presented over a period of six days. The primary objective of the conference was not to present a survey of existing facilities but rather to bring together a wide variety of points of view concerning the problems of bibliographic organization, and thereby to try to bring about an understanding, if not a consensus of opinion regarding basic problems which must be solved before an effective organization of the world of recorded materials can be developed.

The article presents information on the Management documentation preview that is announced by Documentation Inc. Management's Documentation Preview will feature reproductions of the contents pages of current periodicals and books in business and management. Regular scanning of Management's Documentation Preview will enable research minded management to keep abreast with the increasing volume of management literature.