Search

A recently opened Dutch maritime museum makes information on its exhibits and reserve collections available to visitors via a computerized information system, which uses library computer software and videodisks to provide both textual and pictorial information on objects. Bibliographic information is also available on the museum library's 80,000-volume collection. (CDD)

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students who are studying in different agricultural science disciplines at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCS HAU), Hisar, India. In the study, it was also try to determine what the information requirements of the targeted respondents are, and to determine their awareness of library services available to them currently. For data collection, survey method was adopted with the aid of structured questionnaire. The data were collected over a period of 20 days between January and February 2021. Total 200 postgraduate students, who were studying in different agricultural sciences departments were approached randomly and shared questionnaires to them in the library premises. Out of total 200, 177 valid questionnaires were collected and considered for final analysis, which representing the response rate @88.5 percent. The study found that library & its resources (44.64 percent), and Internet & social media are the two main sources of information seeking for the respondents. More than 70 percent respondents were preferred to search their required information from electronic information resources due to easy to search and use, whereas, around 39 percent of the respondents seeking information for preparing examination and 23.72 percent respondents seeking information for preparing class assignments. About 70 percent of the respondents were quite satisfied with the staff of the library, whereas, 14.12 percent respondents were rated staff behaviour and support as excellent. 50.84 percent respondents were opined that the services and facilities provided by the university library has very effective and plays a very important role in their academic and research work. The outcome of this research would help the similar type of other institutions of the country as well as of other countries to understand the changing needs and behaviour of students and researchers and to develop information resources and services in their premises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Decentralized Image Retrieval for Education (DIRECT) service for the National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Digital Library (NSDL). DIRECT augments NSDL by providing content-based image-retrieval (CBIR) functionality. CBIR allows the user to designate a query image so that the service can search the library for images of similar content. DIRECT matches images not by text metadata but by the color or texture of the image objects; the matching process does not depend on a match between the cataloger description and the user description. DIRECT is a peer-to-peer service built for decentralized digital libraries. The content-based image-retrieval service is available to all collections in NSDL without imposing new standards or protocols. With DIRECT, NSDL can support images that have yet to be cataloged or have incomplete metadata without adding overhead (expenditure of additional resources) to the collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of journals with embargo periods in aggregated databases designed for academic libraries has increased for the simple reason that the number of available full text journals in these collections has also increased. Misconceptions surrounding embargo periods deduce that embargoes diminish access to information by withholding the current full text from journals, when in fact, embargoes increase access to information for journals that otherwise would not be available in aggregated databases. Embargoes exist for the purpose of preserving a publisher's traditional print and electronic journal subscriptions. Full text databases and e-journals are distinctly different resources. The use of embargoes may be valid in one electronic resource, but not the other. Linking capabilities provide seamless access from embargoed journals with current indexing in databases to the corresponding current full text found in a library's e-journal collection. Embargoed information from a given journal is far superior to no full text information at all from that source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This guide outlines general issues in searching for studies; describes the main sources of potential studies; and discusses how to plan the search process, design, and carry out search strategies, manage references found during the search process and document and report the search process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays libraries are facing the challenges posed by a diverse and rapidly expanding information universe. Increased user expectations for faster and easier access to relevant information go hand in hand with institutional demands for increased operational efficiency. Integrated library system required to makes it easier for housekeeping operations in a library. Barcode is a part of housekeeping operation. The process of library automation in different aspects also helps to make better use of existing library services and staff. It allows for the improvement of library in the variety, amount and quality of materials that are available in the library's collection. This paper explores a new barcode interface for libraries. It designs the barcode interface by using the PHP high level programming languages and also using some HTML tags in home page. It also uses the Code-128, which is one of the important standards in barcode creation. Another important standard is FPDF for making the barcode in a single page or multiple pages in PDF format, which is most user-friendly and easy to display interface for printing the barcode. The main objectives of this paper are to (i) explore the possibility of generating 65 barcodes in a single A-4 size paper; (ii) print out the single barcode on a single page; (iii) generate the barcode from the CSV or EXCEL format and (iv) generate the barcode from starting number to end number in a single page or multiple pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2004, Georgia Southern University began a library construction project that was to last 4 years. An important aspect was the installation of an Automated Retrieval System (ARC) to house a substantial portion of the library collections so that more space could be available for students, faculty, and the services to meet their needs. This paper traces the development of the use of the ARC to house collections, with emphasis on how materials were selected for the two phases of the project and how catalogers have adapted to the idea of collections that can only be browsed virtually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stemming is a widely used method in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Its primary purpose is to normalize words with similar meanings but different forms into a common representation by converting them into their basic or root forms. Stemming is typically applied during the data preprocessing stage to enhance the performance of NLP systems. In the context of the Indonesian language, the Nazief stemming algorithm is the most commonly employed. This algorithm has been developed and adapted for various regional languages in Indonesia. In this research, we will assess the performance of the Nazief stemming algorithm on Twitter data from the accounts @wargabanua and @instakalsel. The goal is to evaluate how the algorithm handles text data that includes a mixture of two languages: Indonesian and Banjar. The test results indicate an accuracy rate of 90.34%. This demonstrates that the Nazief stemming algorithm can effectively process social media text data, even though it was not originally designed for the Banjar language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for a shift from the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) to discovery systems craft a need for recognising the information-searching behaviour of the current genre of library users. This study examined the undergraduate students' awareness and usage of information search functionalities that are embedded in OPAC at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) in Limpopo Province, South Africa (SA). Quantitative data were collected using a Google Form questionnaire, the link of which was e-mailed to the participants to complete. A systematic random sampling method was applied to arrive at 563 respondents. The findings revealed that most respondents rated their level of awareness of OPAC as average. Although some were familiar with OPAC search functionalities, such as author-and-title search entries, and preferred using simple search options on OPAC, there were respondents who were not familiar with Boolean operators, truncation and wildcard symbols, proximity operators, and field search. The major variables affecting their information retrieval on OPAC were poor internet connection and their lack of skills in searching for information from OPAC. This study recommends that librarians promote the importance of using all OPAC functionalities and train undergraduates to improve their awareness and optimal usage of OPAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the use of library OPAC in PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh (India). This investigation applied standard survey method of the structured questionnaire to collect the data from the users using OPAC. A sample of 176 users including undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research scholars was taken. The study reveals that there is a growing trend towards the use of Library OPAC as a useful tool for searching the library collection but only a few users are making use of other facilities available in OPAC such as to enquire whether the particular document is already issued or not; or to make proper use of advanced search feature of the OPAC. The scope of the study is limited to the PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Bibliotecii Nationale a României is the property of Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the realm of literature about personalization of digital library services. This paper focuses on users' unique needs and will identify different types of personalized services. Therefore, this study has identified different types of services personalization in the context of digital academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach: In this research, the systematic review method has been used to obtain the relevant indicators of different types of personalization in the context of libraries. To explain basic indicators, a Delphi method has been used. The Delphi panel's members consisted of 15 experts (faculty members, researchers, professional users and software designers). A purposeful sampling and the Delphi fulfillment process were performed in three rounds. After collecting data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), inferential statistics (binomial distribution test) and the Kendall coordination coefficient were used to determine the consensus rate among experts. Findings: A total of 103 indicators were extracted for different types of personalization through a systematic literature review. Of these, 90 indicators were considered significant in the experts' view. Generally, content personalization, interactive personalization, collaborative personalization and information retrieval personalization are the main components of personalization types, each of which has its own indicators. Originality/value: This study has dealt with the issue of what is personalized in the context of digital academic library. The findings should be helpful and effective in the development of a holistic view on personalization of services in digital libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linked Open Data (LOD) is a core Semantic Web technology that makes knowledge and information spaces of different knowledge domains manageable, reusable, shareable, exchangeable, and interoperable. The LOD approach achieves this through the provision of services for describing, indexing, organizing, and retrieving knowledge artifacts and making them available for quick consumption and publication. This is also aligned with the role and objective of traditional library cataloging. Owing to this link, major libraries of the world are transferring their bibliographic metadata to the LOD landscape. Some developments in this direction include the replacement of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules 2nd Edition by the Resource Description and Access (RDA) and the trend towards the wider adoption of BIBFRAME 2.0. An interesting and related development in this respect are the discussions among knowledge resources managers and library community on the possibility of enriching bibliographic metadata with socially curated or user-generated content. The popularity of Linked Open Data and its benefit to librarians and knowledge management professionals warrant a comprehensive survey of the subject. Although several reviews and survey articles on the application of Linked Data principles to cataloging have appeared in literature, a generic yet holistic review of the current state of Linked and Open Data in cataloging is missing. To fill the gap, the authors have collected recent literature (2014-18) on the current state of Linked Open Data in cataloging to identify research trends, challenges, and opportunities in this area and, in addition, to understand the potential of socially curated metadata in cataloging mainly in the realm of the Web of Data. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this review article is the first of its kind that holistically treats the subject of cataloging in the Linked and Open Data environment. Some of the findings of the review are: Linked and Open Data is becoming the mainstream trend in library cataloging especially in the major libraries and research projects of the world; with the emergence of Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV), the bibliographic metadata is becoming more meaningful and reusable; and, finally, enriching bibliographic metadata with user-generated content is gaining momentum. Conclusions drawn from the study include the need for a focus on the quality of catalogued knowledge and the reduction of the barriers to the publication and consumption of such knowledge, and the attention on the part of library community to the learning from the successful adoption of LOD in other application domains and contributing collaboratively to the global scale activity of cataloging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lexikos is the property of Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The different technologies, media, publishing trends, information storage methods, information retrieval practices etc changed the concepts of library and information services in past decade. The continuous paradigm shift in libraries developed digital libraries and virtual libraries from traditional analogue libraries and the transformation made an impact over library functions including library and information services. Reference and information services are major activities of library functions. In the present paper efforts are made to analyse the possible changes in library and information services due to digital and virtual environment. Transition of libraries in passage of time is reviewed due to applications of ICT over last few decades as well as possible future changes to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This investigation explored 21st century stewardship of a late 20th century scientific oral history project through the lens of information practice. Oral history project stewardship and reuse are understudied. Literature review. Oral histories foreground human agency in the world. Often studied singly, many reflect an oral history project's historiographic context. Stewardship documentation by multiple stakeholders accrues over time. The author developed an information practice analysis tool for systematic exploration of oral history stewardship documentation. Method. A case study approach and qualitative content analysis techniques guided investigation of documentation for an oral history project held at Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Textual data was collected for a purposive sample. Analysis and results. Multiple stakeholders' documentation schema for the purposive sample were analysed in Excel and Word. Results coded five information work models for stakeholder information practices. Discussion. The information work models portrayed stakeholder information practices as mechanisms for stability in the stewardship of contextual assets, and mechanisms for transformation through staff knowledge, as situational assets. Conclusion. Information practice analysis of oral history stewardship in this case study systematised stakeholders' and user perspectives on access. Implications for theory development lie in leveraging the stability and transformative agency of stewardship and reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As libraries commit to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, it is critical to measure the strengths and weaknesses of collections in response. Building off already established approaches of collection diversity audits, the author argues that it is possible to use MARC metadata to perform exploratory analyses at a large scale. This paper discusses the process of planning, preparing the data, and performing an analysis, following the trajectory of an analysis of the 2.8 million geographic subject headings present in the University of Toronto Libraries' MARC records. The tools developed during this project are cited and available for reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the key components of building good digital collections. Design/methodology/approach – Different categories of digital collections based on guidelines defined by the authors are presented. Issues related to public access are illustrated. A model using the FRBR entities relationships is proposed to improve the accessibility of digital cultural materials so that scholarly research can be enhanced. The number of digital collections has been increased significantly since the late 1990s, but few studies investigated how these collections were organized and managed. To attain an understanding of the current status of institutional digital collections, various collection sites were examined and analyzed. The study focused on the existence and level of richness of bibliographic descriptions provided for each image; whether a search engine was available or not; how easily the search could be performed; and how search results were organized. The presentation of search results is problematic. Applying the IFLA FRBR model to digital materials can bring a solution. Findings – The IFLA FRBR model presents the search results hierarchically so that related materials can be easily collocated. This feature meets the end-users needs. The attributes of work and expression entities presented in the IFLA FRBR model should be applied differently for event-based digital cultural materials. Defining work- or expression-level entities under the event or theme will be more logical than under author and/or title for cultural materials. Doing expression-level cataloging might also work for this type of materials. Originality/value – Before building a digital collection, institutions should have a well-thought-out and well-planned collection management mechanism. Metadata scheme, content standards and content management system are important fundamentals. Much can be done to improve the accessibility of digital collections. The proposed FRBRized approach will make the retrieval of digital cultural objects easier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As libraries continue to acquire, catalog, and preserve pa- per-based collections, and the early promise of digital technologies to put everything online has not yet been fully realized, the need to physically retain little used analog collections has intensified. Thus a growing trend in the field of academic and public libraries is an increased awareness of the importance of remote storage facilities (RSF). A recent American Library Association meeting featured speakers who were involved with such a facility. The speakers offered tips and hints on surviving and even thriving in one successfully. The authors of this article hope that by documenting the highlights of these presentations, other librarians and staff in the planning, construction, or implementation phase of a RSF will be better prepared for the challenges and difficulties they will face when trying to provide access to and physically maintain a collection geographically distant from their main library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Howard D. White's Brief Tests of Collection Strength presents a method for evaluating library collections. His method, based on comparing short lists of items (brief tests) to a library's holdings, comes out of conspectus work of the 1980s but is much more straightforward. White provides evidence and research supporting the integrity of his approach. This article offers further simplification of White's brief tests, thereby making this method of collection evaluation attractive to smaller college libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study seeks to evaluate the accessibility and use of library resources in the North Campus Library of the University of Education, Winneba. The study was a survey and made use of a questionnaire as research instrument. The target population consisted of all Level 300 Basic Education students and Social Studies students numbering 500 as at 2019/2020 academic year. A sample size of 300 representing 20% of the population was selected through random sampling. focusing on accessibility of how and to suggest ways through its findings and recommend solution to those challenges. The questionnaire was analyzed using frequency tables and percentages. Findings of the study were that students were not using libraries to support their learning and other academic activities as they lacked searching and library use skills. Where the library is sited at the last floor of the faculty block makes it sometime difficult for these are some of the setbacks that hinders students accessing the North Campus Library for research and for their information needs. It was recommended among other things that, student should be introduce to information literacy skills to help them analyse information problems and structure their searches so as to find their own answers. Also, circulation procedures could also hamper use. Therefore, circulation procedures should be made simple but follow up strictly. The study recommended that current and adequate information resources should be acquired to increase the level of user satisfaction which has been found to be poor, also, the librarians should use their knowledge of organisation of knowledge one and two, reference and bibliography, and media librarianship to provide access to effective information retrieval tools and audio-visual materials to help facilitate interactive learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web indexing or web marketing is the concept of two decades back in the fields of service operations, communications, academics, and research. It is also increasing importance in the LIS field comparing to the traditional marketing concepts as the library services are not confined within the four walls. Users access information breaking geographical restrictions from the information technology-based automated and digitized library. Indexing and the web indexing play important roles in the information management and retrieval process. It helps in making process of the documents more accessible and transparent. The importance of web indexing is increasing because of the gather of information. Considering greater importance to this topic, web marketing and its applicability in managing and disseminating digital information, this study has been undertaken for proper establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an investigation into whether institutional repositories at member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) provide publicly available metadata documentation via the repositories' websites. The study compares the results of a September 2017 survey with findings from a review of ARL institutional repository websites. Slightly more than half of ARL institutional repositories do provide metadata documentation. Implications of the results are discussed, including specific research questions for moving forward. A call to reimagine documentation as a tool of transparency is delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several years, Google Earth and Google Maps have been adopted by many academic institutions as academic research and mapping tools. The authors were interested in discovering how popular the Google mapping products are in the academic library setting. A survey was conducted to establish the mapping products' popularity, and type of use in an academic library setting. Results show that over 90 percent of the respondents use Google Earth and Google Maps either to help answer research questions, to create and access finding aids, for instructional purposes or for promotion and marketing. The authors recommend expanding the mapping products' user base to include all reference and liaison librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web-scale discovery services for libraries provide deep discovery to a library's local and licensed content and represent an evolution-perhaps a revolution-for end-user information discovery as pertains to library collections. This article frames the topic of web-scale discovery and begins by illuminating web-scale discovery from an academic library's perspective-that is, the internal perspective seeking widespread staff participation in the discovery conversation. This included the creation of the Discovery Task Force, a group that educated library staff, conducted internal staff surveys, and gathered observations from early adopters. The article next addresses the substantial research conducted with library vendors that have developed these services. Such work included drafting of multiple comprehensive question lists distributed to the vendors, onsite vendor visits, and continual tracking of service enhancements. Together, feedback gained from library staff, insights arrived at by the Discovery Task Force, and information gathered from vendors collectively informed the recommendation of a service for the UNLV Libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of OPAC service in the library has been going on for a long time. This service has given many advantages to users as a quick and accurate tool for information retrieval. Even so, not all people use OPAC service; in fact, previous researches reveal that the application of OPAC service is decreasing. Therefore, this study aims to find out what is the interpretation of OPAC by the users of the library of Universitas Airlangga, thus gaining a deeper analysis on the matter. The method used for this study is qualitative method, with purposive sampling as the technique to determine informants, while the techniques of data collection are done by in-depth interview and observation. The result of this study will be explained using Encoding-Decoding concept from Stuart Hall, which produces three position typologies of the users who used OPAC service in the university library. Those three positions are Dominant/hegemonic position where the users understand the meaning directly according to the purpose of OPAC service; Negotiated position reveals the position of the users who are quite understand the aim of OPAC service; and Oppositional position in which the users who strongly object the library's purpose to provide a quick and accurate information provider through OPAC service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an exposition of the hardware and software hurdles that must be overcome to deploy a wearable sensor that collects all the text that it sees or hears. The text is uploaded to a standard private platform (a smartphone or a laptop) or to a cloud service for character and speech recognition followed by indexing. Selected segments are retrieved on demand. Compared to queries on the World Wide Web, searching the prospective microcosm of information is analogous to finding one's way in one's backyard instead of in a national forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents case studies of big music data, musicology and the study of recorded music. Topics discussed include Music Information Retrieval being an enigmatic part of music studies field for musicologists, and the article providing a brief overview of recorded music study in the music studies field.

Cataloging is not always something people consider doing on the go or through a mobile device. While it is not traditional and does not include all the typical elements of a catalog system, mobile cataloging done with the help of the "cloud" enables libraries to provide an alternative type of catalog for their users and may even make the cataloging process easier than the traditional means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library was an early health sciences library adopter of web scale discovery with introduction of a customized instance of EBSCO’s Discovery Service (EDS) in 2012. After three years with EDS, the library initiated an evaluation project involving two user surveys and a library staff focus group to assess user satisfaction with the service. Resulting changes included introduction of widgets to improve access to clinical content, addition of radio buttons to the search box to make defaults easier to enable and disable, and a custom course reserves search feature. The improvements launched fall semester 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the search behaviors of diverse fiction readers in different search scenarios. The aim was to understand how fiction readers with varied reading preferences are selecting interesting novels in library catalogs. We conducted a controlled user study with 80 participants. Two reader groups were elicited according to similar reading preference patterns. The readers enjoyed the entertainment, escape, and comfort that reading as a pleasurable activity offered. The aesthetic readers valued the artistic and aesthetic pleasures, widening vocabulary, and ability to express oneself through fiction books. We compared the search queries and search actions between the 2 reader groups. Our results demonstrated that preference patterns were associated with readers' search behavior, that is, the number of viewed search result pages, opened book pages, dwell time on book pages, and the type of search queries. Based on the findings, we present 3 search tactics for fiction books in library catalogs: i) focused querying, ii) topical browsing, and iii) similarity-based tactic. The most popular search tactic in each search scenario was "focused querying" with known author in both reader groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some discovery tools may not necessarily be the best resources for searching the health sciences literature. This is especially true when the discovery tool is not a vendor-neutral product or when it does not deep search full-text electronic resources. Therefore, supplementing a discovery tool with a health sciences-specific federated search engine could be a viable option. This is a review of one university’s decision-making and implementation process for adding a health sciences-specific supplemental federated search engine. Included is a 30-month usage analysis of the federated search engine, along with website usability testing results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose Deeni Madaris of Pakistan and their libraries are playing an important role in educating the large fraction of society. They have always been engaged in the development of social and cultural values of the Pakistani society. This study aims to investigate the organization of information resources and their utilization at Deeni Madaris libraries in the central Punjab, Pakistan.Design/methodology/approach Quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. A questionnaire was developed on the bases of related literature and discussions with experts of librarianship as well as Islamic studies in Pakistan. The questionnaire was sent to 49 Deeni Madaris, of which five did not have libraries and four did not respond. Forty (81.6 per cent) Deeni Madaris responded and provided the relevant data about their libraries. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS 22. Mostly descriptive statistics were applied to calculate the frequencies, percentage, means and standard deviations. A two-tailed t-test was applied to check the impact of cataloguing and automation on the use of information resources.Findings It was found that majority of the respondents developed their own classification and cataloguing methods for the organization of information resources and did not have a proper retrieval system. Majority of the respondents were providing lending services to readers. Teachers and final-year students were the key users of the libraries. They mostly referred to books, theses and serials written in Urdu and Arabic language. The situation of library computerization was very weak; only 19 libraries had computers and 11 of them have partially automated the library activities. Library automation and catalogue put positive effects on the use of library resources.Originality/value The exploration of the literature showed that libraries of Madaris in Pakistan have always been a priority, but these libraries did not get a position in the library literature as they deserve. This study will fill this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topic models have been shown to be a useful way of representing the content of large document collections, for example, via visualization interfaces (topic browsers). These systems enable users to explore collections by way of latent topics. A standard way to represent a topic is using a term list; that is the top- n words with highest conditional probability within the topic. Other topic representations such as textual and image labels also have been proposed. However, there has been no comparison of these alternative representations. In this article, we compare 3 different topic representations in a document retrieval task. Participants were asked to retrieve relevant documents based on predefined queries within a fixed time limit, presenting topics in one of the following modalities: (a) lists of terms, (b) textual phrase labels, and (c) image labels. Results show that textual labels are easier for users to interpret than are term lists and image labels. Moreover, the precision of retrieved documents for textual and image labels is comparable to the precision achieved by representing topics using term lists, demonstrating that labeling methods are an effective alternative topic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although use statistics are often used in the assessment of library collections and services, they are of limited value in evaluating the library’s effectiveness as an information system. This essay highlights three concepts from the information retrieval literature—recall, precision, and relevance—and describes a standard of relevance that accounts for the learning goals of the academic community as well as the performance goals of students. It also demonstrates how the academic mission of the university can be incorporated into the assessment and management of the library as an information retrieval system. The discussion concludes with guidelines for the assessment of recall and precision as well as suggestions for the integration of these concepts into library collection development, cataloging/access, reference, and instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to test whether query expansion by approximate string matching methods is beneficial in retrieval from historical newspaper collections in a language rich with compounds and inflectional forms ( Finnish). First, approximate string matching methods were used to generate lists of index words most similar to contemporary query terms in a digitized newspaper collection from the 1800s. Top index word variants were categorized to estimate the appropriate query expansion ranges in the retrieval test. Second, the effectiveness of approximate string matching methods, automatically generated inflectional forms, and their combinations were measured in a Cranfield-style test. Finally, a detailed topic-level analysis of test results was conducted. In the index of historical newspaper collection the occurrences of a word typically spread to many linguistic and historical variants along with optical character recognition ( OCR) errors. All query expansion methods improved the baseline results. Extensive expansion of around 30 variants for each query word was required to achieve the highest performance improvement. Query expansion based on approximate string matching was superior to using the inflectional forms of the query words, showing that coverage of the different types of variation is more important than precision in handling one type of variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]