In this article we explore the strengths and limitations of hypertext for the online presentation of thesauri used in information retrieval. We examine the ability of hypertext to support each of three common types of thesaurus display: graphic, alphabetical, and hierarchical. Graphic displays generated by hypertext browsers appear to be inferior to their printed counterparts. The simple alphab...

The recent release of a metadata toolset by the EdNA Higher Education Project team has provided an opportunity for the Australian education community to improve access to a wealth of information resources through EdNA Online and related services. This paper is concerned with strategies for resource discovery. An evaluation of current Web-based search services reveals a need for greater precisio...

Author searching is traditionally based on the matching of name strings. Special characteristics of authors as personal names and subject indicators are not considered. This makes it difficult to identify a set of related authors or to group authors by subjects in retrieval systems. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a prototype visualization system to enhance author se...

We consider the problem of a searcher that looks, for example, for a lost flashlight in a dusty environment. The search agent finds the flashlight as soon as it crosses the ray emanating from the flashlight, and in order to pick it up, the searcher has to move to the origin of the light beam. First, we give a search strategy for a special case of the ray search—the window shopper problem—, wher...

Multimedia Web searching is a significant information activity for many people. Major Web search engines are critical resources in people’s efforts to locate relevant online multimedia information. It is therefore important that we understand how searchers are utilizing these Web information systems in their quest to retrieve multimedia information to design effective Web systems in support of ...

Recognizing the need to support both goal-directed and experiential behaviour in online shopping environments as a means of facilitating flow, this paper reports results from an exploratory study that investigates consumer preferences for Web-based product information display across browsing and searching tasks. Thirty-one participants performed two online shopping tasks (one searching and one ...

Information asymmetry makes it difficult for sellers and buyers to know better of each other’s states. How online advertisement can be useful for buyers to judge the quality of the products is a crucial issue for companies who rely on banner-ads business models. This paper provides one answer and articulates the conditions that advertising can indeed be a signal of quality.

A method is described to empower students to efficiently perform general and specific literature searches using online resources. The method was tested on undergraduate and graduate students with varying backgrounds in scientific literature. Students involved in this study showed marked improvement in their awareness of how and where to find accurate scientific information. © 2009 American Asso...

This paper begins to identify and characterize the knowledge used by experienced librarians while searching for subject information in online catalogs. Ten experienced librarians performed the same set of six subject searches in an online catalog. Investigated was the knowledge used to solve retrieval problems. This knowledge represents expertise in the use of the catalog. Data were collected t...