bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STATUS AND INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Authors: TESKEY F.N.
Published: January 2008

This paper shows how a free text, Boolean‐type retrieval system can be used to provide a wide range of information processes. The paper describes the STATUS retrieval system, concentrating on the recent developments and improvements to the system. In particular, the use of pre‐and post‐processors is discussed. These give much greater flexibility to the user interface and allow STATUS to be integrated into existing information systems. This is illustrated with examples from a library loans system.
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: ANDREW ROBERTS D. , LIGHT RICHARD B.
Published: January 2008

A survey of the current state of documentation practice in museums is presented. This concentrates on the broad themes of the practice, making comparisons with analogous library procedures, where appropriate. A brief introduction to museums and their organizational framework within the United Kingdom is given. With this as background, the methods of documentation used by museums are reviewed, and a survey presented of current developments on an international and national scale.
DOCUMENTATION NOTE
Authors: WORTHINGTON D. , HINDLE A.
Published: January 2008

Quentin Burrell points out that the circulation distribution observed in several library collections is approximately geometric and seeks to explain this phenomenon. He selects one of a number of alternative explanations; that the items in the collection have different levels of ‘popularity’ and that the distribution of popularity is negative exponential: and that for a given popularity the number of borrowings in a time period has a poisson distribution. He proves that this combination does produce a geometric circulation distribution. Finally he introduces a zero‐use category of books which is used to explain the higher than expected number of books that are not borrowed at all in the data. However, alternative models also fit the data and his basic explanation does seem dubious in qualitative terms.
TEXT PASSAGE RETRIEVAL BASED ON COLON CLASSIFICATION: RETRIEVAL PERFORMANCE
Authors: SHEPHERD MICHAEL A.
Published: January 2008

A set of experiments was conducted to determine the suitability of the Colon Classification as a foundation for the automated analysis, representation and retrieval of primary information from the full text of documents. Primary information is that information embodied in the text of a document, as opposed to secondary information which is generally in such forms as: an abstract, a table of contents or an index.
WHY ARE NEW JOURNALS FOUNDED?
Authors: ROWLAND J.F.B.
Published: January 2008

Since 1978, the Scientific Information Committee of The Royal Society has been conducting a study of the scientific information system of the UK. While this study has drawn on the work of a large number of information researchers, and in general has had a policy‐making function, a number of fact‐finding studies have also been carried out under the aegis of the Royal Society's study itself.
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: BLOOMFIELD B.C.
Published: January 2008

Perhaps the first whisper of the British Library(hereinafter BL) may be found in the report of the Parry Committee which recommended the formation of a national policy in regard to libraries and the provision of information. This was swiftly followed by the Dainton Committee report, a White Paper, and finally the British Library Act, which came into force on 1 July 1973 when the Board of the new BL formally took over responsibility for the library departments (excepting Prints and Drawings) and the Science Reference Library from the Trustees of the British Museum, plus the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the former National Central Library. To this weighty nucleus were added the major responsibilities of the former Office of Scientific and Technical Information, in April 1974, forming the basis of a new Research and Development Department, and the British National Bibliography, in August 1974, as the foundation of the new Bibliographic Services Division. The way for this very considerable re‐shaping of the country's library resources had been thoroughly prepared by a body familiarly known as BLOC (British Library Organizing Committee) between January and July 1973. There are a number of accounts of the creation of the new library which do not differ in substance. Later developments can be studied from the series of annual reports which provide the most authoritative data available, although it should be noted that statistics provided are not always compatible from year to year.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE BRITISH LIBRARY
Authors: URQUHART D.J.
Published: January 2008

It is now over six years since I retired from the post of Director‐General of the Lending Division of the British Library. Before this I was involved in some of the discussions which led to the formation of the British Library (BL) and I knew something of the hopes which were behind the creation of the new organization. Subsequently I was in the British Library long enough to realize some of the difficulties it faced. Looking backwards the question arises whether the creation of the BL was a sound idea and whether the BL has lived up to the expectations of its originators.
ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR LIBRARY CIRCULATION DATA
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN
Published: January 2008

Alternative forms of the desirability distribution for library materials, as defined by the author in an earlier work, are discussed. It is demonstrated that, while several different distributions may adequately describe an observed circulation frequency distribution over a fairly short time period (one year, say), the long‐term implications may be quite different. Some of the statistical aspects are discussed with an eye to ensuring that the most appropriate model is used.
ON A PROBABILISTIC APPROACH TO DETERMINING THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN BOOLEAN SEARCH REQUEST FORMULATIONS
Authors: RADECKI TADEUSZ
Published: January 2008

A new and promising approach to document clustering consists of utilizing previously formed clusters of queries to cluster documents. To employ this approach in practice a similarity measure for queries must be available. This requirement does not cause any problem in the case of information retrieval systems in which both the search request formulations and document representations are sets of weighted or unweighted index terms. However, in most operational retrieval systems search request formulations are Boolean combinations of index terms. Research into similarity measures for search request formulations of this type has already been undertaken by the author and reported elsewhere. The present paper provides further results of investigations in this area. The novelty of the approach discussed is the incorporation within the methodology described earlier of a weighting mechanism to indicate the relative importance of particular attributes of a given Boolean search request formulation. A modification suggested is based on the standard probabilistic approach to information retrieval.
‘POLIS’ IN PARLIAMENT: COMPUTER‐BASED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY
Authors: MENHENNET DAVID , WAINWRIGHT JANE
Published: January 2008

The Library provides information, documentation and research services to Members of the House of Commons. The organization of the Library and the history of POLIS (the Parliamentary On‐Line Information System) are described. The system became operational in 1980, and was set up by and is operated by Scicon Computer Services Ltd. Data entry is performed by the Library's Indexing Unit. Details of the telecommunications, software, hardware and database are given. UNIDAS retrieval software is used, and subject indexing is based on a thesaurus compiled by the Library. Most Library staff are being trained to use the retrieval facilities. Other offices of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords also have terminals linked to the system. Approved non‐Parliamentary users may also subscribe to POLIS via the public‐switched telephone network, Euronet or PSS. Other uses of computers by the Library are described.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CONTROL OF NIGERIAN PUBLICATIONS: SOCIAL SCIENCE PRIMARY MATERIALS
Authors: OBASI JOHN U.
Published: January 2008

This paper deals with current efforts to control the amorphous range of newsprint ephemeral documents that have dominated the Nigerian literary market for nearly thirty years. The materials which are of inestimable value to social scientists, administrators, politicians, historians, the military and commerce, originate from a variety of sources. Some of the major sources are identified and the lack of any conscious and adequate attempts by their producers to bibliographically control these publications are hereby examined in relation to the special responsibilities of the National Library of Nigeria in the production of a comprehensive national bibliography.
SEARCH PROCEDURES IN THE LIBRARY—ANALYSED FROM THE COGNITIVE POINT OF VIEW
Authors: INGWERSEN PETER
Published: January 2008

The paper reports experimental results concerning user interaction with document organization, user‐librarian negotiation and the librarian's search processes in public libraries. The focus of the investigations is on the cognitive aspects of information retrieval. After defining the formal framework of the information retrieval (IR) process a theoretical section discusses the cognitive viewpoint on which the research is based, followed by an outline of applicable findings and theories within the fields of cognitive science and cognitive psychology. The experimental design involving tape‐recording and analysis of verbal protocols is briefly described and considered. The main part of the paper concentrates on the results of investigations and considers certain implications. It is shown how the user's knowledge structures cope with the structures of the system. User needs seem often to be presented as a label which may create ambiguity problems. Functions of open and closed questions are investigated and certain behaviouristic factors discussed. Matching the knowledge structure of the user and the librarian is considered a kind of learning process. Librarians prefer search activity before consideration of the presented problem. Without a user present the librarian's IR process is determined by three search attitudes involving motives and expectations as to search routines and possibilities. Conceptual knowledge, previous search and working domain play important roles. The attitudes have consequences for the objectives concerning use of routines and for the use of search concepts.
INFORMATION INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENTS: A THIRD REPORT ON PROJECT INISS
Authors: STREATFIELD D.R. , WILSON T.D.
Published: January 2008

The previous reports in this series described the data collection phases of Project INISS, in which structured observation and interviewing were the basic methods used. When this work was completed the Project moved into its ‘action’ phase, in which a number of innovations in information provision were applied experimentally in seven social services departments. The change was reflected in a different funding body; the early work was supported by the British Library Research and Development Department, but a new research grant was obtained from the Department of Health and Social Security when the BLRDD was unable to provide further support. This paper outlines the idea of ‘action research’, describes the intention of the action phase and of the innovations introduced, traces the main features of negotiations with department management and staff and outlines the results.
JESSE HAUK SHERA
Authors: FOSKETT D.J.
Published: January 2008

Jesse Shera was my friend for twenty‐five years, but I knew him well by reputation for much longer. We first met at the Dorking Classification Conference in 1957, where he had been invited, along with Ranganathan, to give one of the two keynote addresses. At Dorking, he impressed us all by the wide range of his reading, the way he related classification theory to the process of concept formation and ordering. His calm, thoughtful appearance was belied by the keen sense of humour and the dry flashes of wit which constantly enlivened his speech and his writing; and I remember well his wry remark, on the occasion of some belligerence by members of the CRG, ‘I'm supposed to be a defender of classification in the US!’ Later, he invited me to Cleveland, where I was able to see for myself the respect and great affection in which he was held by all his colleagues and students. He was a great teacher, and his life‐long experience was solidified into the great book on Foundations of Education for Librarianship. I have occasionally felt that this momentous volume does not fully display his great gifts as a writer. Perhaps, towards the end of his life, he felt the weightiness of his thinking ought to be set down in an equally weighty manner. But especially in his short papers he was a model of incisive thought, forceful, witty, and demonstrating his great ability to fetch simile and metaphor from any part of a number of literatures. It was a pleasure to edit two volumes of his papers, and I have no doubt that generations of students of librarianship and information science will derive the same pleasure as I did from reading and re‐reading these reflections covering more than thirty years of active professional life. It was by no means an arduous job, but highly educative and only rarely did I feel it necessary to make an occasional adjustment. For Shera was not averse to re‐using a sentence or even a paragraph which he liked, and which he felt summarized his thinking in the most appropriate way. And he was right in this, for such happy repetitions formed links between the various subjects which he had dwelt upon.
A CIRCULATION MODEL FOR BUSY PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Authors: BAGUST A.
Published: January 2008

Starting from a basis laid by Burrell, this paper develops a stochastic model of library borrowing using the Negative Binomial distribution. This shows an improvement over previous characterizations for academic libraries and accords well with new data obtained at Huddersfield Public Library. Evidence concerning the process of issue decay is presented and employed to obtain an optimum stock turnover rate for any collection in its ‘steady state’. A method is then given by which simple relegation tests can be constructed to maintain such as optimum turnover. Although not the ‘final word’ in circulation modelling, the negative binomial distribution extends the range of model applicability into the area of high volume, rapid movement collections with some success.
PROGRAMMES IN ADVANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Authors: SPARCK JONES KAREN
Published: January 2008

Major initiatives in advanced information technology are under way or have been proposed in the UK, Europe and Japan. ‘Information technology’ is an umbrella expression with different interpretations: it has been adopted in these policy contexts to refer to all areas of computer (and communications) technology, including hardware and software and both to computing in itself and to the applications of computers; it refers in the broadest sense to the technology of and for information processing.
AN EIGHTEENTH‐CENTURY FACETED CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
Authors: WHITROW MAGDA
Published: January 2008

Condorcet's is not a name that figures prominently in histories of classification systems; even in Samurin's monumental and comprehensive work—apart from a reference to the influence of his ideas on the system developed by the ‘Institut National des Sciences et Arts’—he is only mentioned in footnotes. Samurin claims that Condorcet's ideas on classification were of a high standard for his period and that the system of the Institut National influenced many nineteenth and twentieth century schemes. However, no reference is made in his or, as far as I have been able to ascertain, in any other history of classification to the technique to which Condorcet made a passing reference in the final chapter of the Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progrès de l'Esprit Humain and which is described in a manuscript in the possession of the Bibliotheque Nationale. This essay entitled ‘Example des methodes techniques’ was published, together with an introductory article on ‘An Unpublished Essay of Condorcet on Technical Methods of Classification’, by K. M. Baker in Annals of Science. Baker is mainly concerned with Condorcet's ideas on the nature of scientific method and with the uses of the technique he described for the framing and testing of hypotheses. Condorcet insisted that his technique was more than a method which allows for the ordering and subsequent retrieval of scientific information. It had a more fundamental utility: that of arranging objects methodically in such a way that the characteristics of each could be related to those of all in whatever way the researcher wished.
DELAYS IN THE LITERATURE OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY: BEFORE AND AFTER PUBLICATION
Authors: CARSON J. , WYATT H.V.
Published: January 2008

Authors often accuse journal editors of excessive delays in publishing articles. The interval between acceptance and publication of an article is an average of five months in medicine and nine months from submission to publication in psychology. A further delay, which has received less attention, is the time for delivery of a journal to the library or the delay before index or abstract publications arrive. Delivery times should be small in North America and Western Europe where most journals and secondary publications are produced, but might be much longer for other continents.
COMMON PROBLEMS OF DOCUMENTARY INFORMATION TRANSFER, STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL IN INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Authors: VICKERS P.H.
Published: January 2008

The aim of this project, as its title indicates, was to explore common problems of documentary information transfer, storage and retrieval in industrial organizations. Consultancy projects over many years had repeatedly shown us similar faults and weaknesses in the ways that firms manage their information—especially the kinds of information that are not looked after by information specialists or trained library staff. It was difficult, however, to draw firm conclusions from these scattered impressions and instances. The organizations we had worked in were of all shapes and sizes—industrial and commercial enterprises, government departments, international organizations and research associations. Their only common characteristic was that at one time or another they had come to us for advice, thus admitting an awareness that something was wrong!
CHANGES IN THE STAFFING OF UK SPECIAL LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN THE DECADE 1972–81: A REVIEW OF THE DES CENSUS DATA
Authors: EAST HARRY
Published: January 2008

The information presented in this paper is derived from a census conducted in March 1981, and published in 1983. Subjective observation of special libraries in the interim would suggest an overall retrenchment, particularly severe in smaller units. During the decade 1972–81, there appears to have been a net decrease in the number of special library and information service units, though probably a small growth overall in the number of staff in the special library sector, particularly those in qualified posts. Special librarians, as a group, tend to have less professional LIS qualifications than their counterparts in public and academic libraries, but are more likely to have a degree in another field. There has been a considerable growth in the number of staff with qualifications of all types in special libraries during the decade. Women constitute a majority of the staff in posts of all types in special libraries though less so than in academic and public libraries. Nevertheless, there has been a significant growth in the number and percentage of females occupying professional posts in special libraries during the decade, a trend which seems likely to continue, despite a much higher ‘wastage’ of females in the profession. Whereas female special librarians are more likely than males to have a formal LIS qualification, they are less likely to hold non‐LIS degrees. The bulk of ‘information science’ posts are in special libraries and the majority of these are in industry and commerce. Nearly 70% of all special library posts are in the south east of England—a situation that has not changed during the decade.
HISTORICAL STUDIES IN DOCUMENTATION
Authors: WOLEDGE G.
Published: January 2008

The word documentation, by which this journal describes its scope, is a partial synonym of bibliography, and the history of both words, through eighty years in one case and through four hundred in the other, reflects the development of highly significant ideas. This paper begins by discussing bibliography in the light of R. Blum's exhaustively learned treatise, and continues with an original exposition of documentation, which cannot claim to reach Blum's standard of thoroughness but does, it is hoped, set out correctly the important things.
THE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION AND LIBRARY PROVISION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Authors: ROBERTS STEPHEN A.
Published: January 2008

The broader context in the last twenty years awareness of the information and documentation problems of the social sciences has grown, but almost as if by stealth. During that period there have been significant developments for practice, organization and research in social science information, but knowledge of these has remained largely confined to small groups of specialists closely associated with them. In the main it has been library and information developments in science and technology that have captured the interest and attention of the majority of professionals and specialists as such: for example, the development of computer‐based citation indexes; the introduction of the computer database as a successor to the printed secondary journal; the development of online search facilities and associated software and retrieval techniques; the exploitation of telecommunications and computers to create new information technology, leading to alternative means of interpersonal communication, the possibilities of electronic journals and a vision of the paperless society. This situation is hardly surprising since science and technology provide the productive base for advanced societies.
MULTIVARIATE REGRESSION MODELS FOR ESTIMATING JOURNAL USEFULNESS IN PHYSICS
Authors: BENNION BRUCE C. , KARSCHAMROON SUNEE
Published: January 2008

Multiple regression models can be used to rank physics journals in approximately the same order as the journals are perceived useful by actual users. Four such regression models are reported here, each having a multiple R value of ·74 or greater. Perceived usefulness, the dependent variable used in constructing the models, was obtained from a survey of 167 physicists in the US and Canada. The independent, or predictor variables include easily obtainable bibliometric statistics such as number of source items published, immediacy index, ratio of citations received to citations made, total citations received, impact factor and others. Regression models that combine certain of these statistics can predict user valuation of the journals better than any single bibliometric predictor alone can do. Their advantage for serials management is in ease of estimating usefulness as judged by users, a much more difficult statistic to obtain. Where these models may not apply, it is relatively simple to construct similar models based upon surveys of other user groups. It appears likely that good models of this type can also be developed for many other disciplines.
PROBABILISTIC AUTOMATIC INDEXING BY LEARNING FROM HUMAN INDEXERS
Authors: ROBERTSON S.E. , HARDING P.
Published: January 2008

A probabilistic model previously used in relevance feedback is adapted for use in automatic indexing of documents (in the sense of imitating human indexers). The model fits with previous work in this area (the ‘adhesion coefficient’ method), in effect merely suggesting a different way of arriving at the adhesion coefficients. Methods for the application of the model are proposed. The independence assumptions used in the model are interpreted, and the possibility of a dependence model is discussed.
THE PRE‐HISTORY OF THE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL THESAURUS
Authors: ROBERTS NORMAN
Published: January 2008

The modern history of the information retrieval thesaurus may be dated from 1947. Even at this early stage a confusion of terminology and purpose was evident. The situation was only partly clarified by the emergence of the first fully operational information retrieval thesaurus in 1959. The intervening period produced a number of theoretical and practical contributions which shaped the thesaurus concept for operational use. The major ideas and influences of this period are examined and related.
THE 80/20 RULE: LIBRARY LORE OR STATISTICAL LAW?
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

It is shown that Trueswell's empirical 80/20 rule arises quite naturally, in general terms at least, from the type of stochastic model for library loans presented by Burrell and Cane. Particular attention is paid to previously suggested uses of the rule in identifying a ‘core collection’ for a library. This emphasizes that the length of the time period considered is of crucial importance.
A NOTE ON AGEING IN A LIBRARY CIRCULATION MODEL
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

It is shown how the Burrell and Cane mixed Poisson model for library loans can be modified to allow for ageing of the items in a collection. In particular, ageing at an exponential rate is discussed and analysed and the model is contrasted with earlier works. The model is illustrated by data collected at the University of Sussex over a four‐year period.
CONSEQUENCES OF LOTKA'S LAW FOR THE LAW OF BRADFORD
Authors: EGGHE L.
Published: January 2008

In this paper we start from the well‐known fact that from the law of Lotka
DEVELOPMENTS IN INFORMATION EDUCATION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOLS OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION STUDIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Authors: DAVINSON DONALD , ROBERTS NORMAN
Published: January 2008

As a follow‐up to a study carried out in 1984 of the constraints upon curriculum development in Schools of Librarianship and Information Science (SLIS), the British Library Research and Development Department (BLR&DD) commissioned a survey of other types of ‘information education’ in the United Kingdom. It was hoped, thereby, to recognise new challenges and opportunities for SLIS and whether serious competition was to be expected from other educational provision. There were some difficulties in recognising and categorising information education programmes. Most were found to be technology‐based with little interest in the user dimension of information provision. Those with such an interest had problems in securing resource provision. SLIS did not appear to be seriously threatened by other information education provision in their traditional roles as providers of personnel for institutionally based information activities. Credibility as providers of information technology‐based programmes required SLIS to develop radically different course programmes with substantial additional resourcing. The poor public image of library and information work and the lack of coherent measures to tackle this imply that SLIS will continue to have difficulty in securing the resource base to compete effectively in the information technology field.
LIBRARY CIRCULATION DISTRIBUTIONS: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLR SAMPLE
Authors: BROWNSEY K.W.R. , BURRELL Q.L.
Published: January 2008

The frequency‐of‐circulation distributions from each of the sixteen libraries participating in the initial period of operation of the Public Lending Right are discussed. Differences between the libraries are highlighted and for each the adequacy of various refinements of the simplest model are considered.
A STRAIGHTFORWARD METHOD FOR ADVANCE ESTIMATION OF USER CHARGES FOR INFORMATION IN NUMERIC DATABASES
Authors: JÄRVELIN KALERVO
Published: January 2008

It is generally recognised that numeric databases (NDBs) have become essential in information retrieval (IR). NDBs differ from traditional bibliographic databases (BDBs) with respect to their content, structural complexity, data manipulation capabilities, and the complexity of the user interfaces and user charging schemes. Recent trends in user interfaces and user charging for all online IR are towards charging for the information actually retrieved from the database rather than for the connect time. However, the viability of such charging schemes depends on the user's ability to estimate the charges in advance, during the query negotiation phase. This paper presents a systematic and general method for estimating user charges for retrieved information in advance, in the context of NDBs based on the relational data model (RDM). The method accepts relational algebra (RA) queries of any complexity, estimates the sizes of their results, and charges for them on the basis of the descriptions of the original database files. The method is a novel one and is directly applicable to any RDM‐based NDB. Tools based on the method are required in the query interfaces to NDBs in order to make query formulation and reformulation meaningful.
A SECOND NOTE ON AGEING IN A LIBRARY CIRCULATION MODEL: THE CORRELATION STRUCTURE
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

The correlation structure of the Burrell and Cane mixed Poisson model for library loans with ageing is presented and is illustrated by data from the University of Sussex. The approach is compared and contrasted with that originally formulated by Morse and most recently re‐evaluated by Beheshti and Tague. Directions for future investigation are suggested.
IMPROVED DESIGN OF GRAPHIC DISPLAYS IN THESAURI — THROUGH TECHNOLOGY AND ERGONOMICS
Authors: BERTRAND‐GASTALDY SUZANNE , DAVIDSON COLIN H.
Published: January 2008

Within the framework of a research project into alternative ways of representing documentation languages and into their flexibility, an attempt is made to draw up a list of performance criteria that an ‘ideal’ thesaurus graphic display should respect. However, a study of the main bibliographies listing thesauri, shows that less than 6 per cent of them contain graphic displays, even though a concurrent literature survey reveals that such displays offer many potential advantages. Up to now, use of displays was probably limited by technology and by the rarity of studies into the cognitive processes of the users of automated systems. Current research in several disciplines (computer graphics, ergonomic psychology and spatial representation) should contribute to the emergence of new types of documentation retrieval tools, well adapted to a broader and more diversified clientele.
COGNITIVE MODELS IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL — AN EVALUATIVE REVIEW
Authors: DANIELS P J.
Published: January 2008

Selected current and recent work in the area of cognitive modelling is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to user models (that is, the model held by a system of a user). The relevance of this work to information retrieval is assessed and some attempts to include user models in IR systems are discussed. Implications are drawn for future work in IR.
TITLES REVISITED
Authors: BUXTON A.B.
Published: January 2008

The earlier work by Buxton and Meadows, reporting the changes in information content of the titles of research papers in eleven different periodicals between 1947 and 1973, has been updated to 1984. Significant increases since 1973 were found for the Lancet and Economica. The British Journal of Sociology shows a significant increase since 1950. No significant changes were found for any period in Philosophy.
MYCOTOXINS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SCIENTIFIC SUBJECT FIELD AND ITS SPREAD INTO DIFFERENT SUBJECT DISCIPLINES
Authors: DATTA V.K.
Published: January 2008

The literature on mycotoxins and its spread into different subject disciplines has been examined using the card index of the Tropical Development and Research Institute Library. The index has a total of 2,802 references on mycotoxins. The graph on the growth of the subject shows an initial flat, a steep climb, a small flat and then a rapid decline. The field of mycotoxins began life as part of agriculture and then moved into the disciplines of chemistry, food science, medicine, microbiology and veterinary science. The pattern of literature spread or scatter made it possible to divide the literature into four chronological sequences or stages of development: period of academic interest, period of high activity, period of peak activity and period of continued interest. It is suggested that such a study could be useful in the effective running of a documentation centre.
THE MARKOV AND THE MIXED‐POISSON MODELS OF LIBRARY CIRCULATION COMPARED
Authors: TAGUE JEAN , AJIFERUKE ISOLA
Published: January 2008

Two dynamic models of library circulation, the Markov model originally proposed by Morse and the mixed Poisson model proposed by Burrell and Cane, are applied to a large eleven‐year university circulation data set. Goodness of fit tests indicate that neither model fits the data. In both cases, the set of non‐circulating items is larger than that predicted by the model.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF MICROPHOTOGRAPHY AND REPRINTS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARIES
Authors: COX DENNIS
Published: January 2008

The benefits that photographic and allied printing methods, particularly photolithography and microphotography, have brought to libraries during the past half‐century are examined. The history of the application of these techniques is outlined. Their rapid growth coincided with the unprecedented increase in university foundations and student numbers and with the great expansion of research. Librarians have been the main customers for reprints and virtually the only customers for micropublications yet they have had very little influence over the suppliers. Because they are completely different in format from books, micro‐forms have presented special problems in acquisition, cataloguing, and use. Despite early predictions microphotography has not radically altered the nature of libraries and has not generally been used to save space. It is passing through a transitional phase because of the development of computers and other new equipment. Computer output microfilm (COM) catalogues are now commonly to be found in libraries.
CREATING AND EVALUATING ENTRY TERMS
Authors: RADA ROY , MILI HAFEDH , LETOURNEAU GARY , JOHNSTON DOUG
Published: January 2008

An indexing language is made more accessible to searchers and indexers by the presence of entry terms or near‐synonyms. This paper first presents an evaluation of existing entry terms and then presents and tests a strategy for creating entry terms. The key tools in the evaluation of the entry terms are documents already indexed into the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and an automatic indexer. If the automatic indexer can better map the title to the index terms with the use of entry terms than without entry terms, then the entry terms have helped. Sensitive assessment of the automatic indexer requires the introduction of measures of conceptual closeness between the computer and human output. With the tools described in this paper, one can systematically demonstrate that certain entry terms have ambiguous meanings. In the selection of new entry terms another controlled vocabulary or thesaurus, called the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), was consulted. An algorithm for mapping terms from SNOMED to MeSH was implemented and evaluated with the automatic indexer. The new SNOMED‐based entry terms did not help indexing but did show how new concepts might be identified which would constitute meaningful amendments to MeSH. Finally, an improved algorithm for combining two thesauri was applied to the Computing Reviews Classification Structure (CRCS) and MeSH. CRCS plus MeSH supported better indexing than did MeSH alone.
SUBJECTIVE PROBABILITY AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: A REVIEW OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE
Authors: THOMPSON PAUL
Published: January 2008

The psychological literature on subjective probability estimation is reviewed to determine the feasibility of designing probabilistic information retrieval systems using such estimates. Their use has been considered by some writers, but psychological issues have not been addressed. Research pertinent to probabilistic information retrieval is examined and implications for probabilistic information retrieval are drawn. It is shown that accurate human probability estimation is possible, both in the laboratory and in real world tasks, e.g., in meteorological forecasting; but that it is also a task subject to systematic bias, or inaccuracy. Proposed techniques for debiasing are considered. The highly task‐dependent nature of such estimates is also discussed; two implications are that results from laboratory studies may have limited relevance to real world tasks and that empirical studies specific to the context of information retrieval need to be made. Human probability estimation appears to be a difficult task, but one which can be done well with proper training and use of debiasing techniques. It is premature to say how useful such estimates would be in probabilistic information retrieval, but their use should not yet be ruled out.
THE ROLE OF CLASSIFICATION IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: ACTION AND THOUGHT IN THE CONTRIBUTION OF BRIAN VICKERY
Authors: COATES E.J.
Published: January 2008

An assessment of B.C. Vickery's contribution to the development of classification for retrieval. This has been both practical and intellectual. On the practical side his work in the early CRG and elsewhere enhanced the status of classification for retrieval as a significant field of study. On the intellectual side he demonstrated the use of his own elaborated version of Ranganathan's facets for the purposes of western special libraries. He analysed the essential features of retrieval systems generally as the required framework within which classification could usefully play a part. The paper discusses some remaining ‘grey areas’ in faceted classification, classificatory fragments implicit in many thesauri, and the value for expository purposes of a mildly polemic approach to issues in classification.
PRECEDENT‐SETTING CONTRIBUTIONS TO MODERN CLASSIFICATION
Authors: RICHMOND PHYLLIS A.
Published: January 2008

With preceding chapters setting the stage, this one will provide a view of Brian C. Vickery's accomplishments from the vantage point of several thousand miles. His career in information science has been an impressive one. What has made it so? To answer that question, it is first necessary to examine his research accomplishments, then their impact, which has spread farther than might have been anticipated at the time of their publication.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE UK
Authors: GRAY JOHN
Published: January 2008

The progress of research and development, funded from government sources, during the last three decades is reviewed, together with forms of sponsorship and support. The Office for Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) functioned from 1965 to 1974 and concentrated on developments for bibliographic and information analysis services. When transferred to the British Library (with the title of the R&D Department) the scope was widened. The trend has been to more applied, more commissioned research reflecting national priorities. Current broad areas of concern attracting financial support are: information technology for library and information services, implications of information being treated as a tradeable commodity and the effects of economic and social constraints on services.
PARADIGM AGREEMENT AND LITERATURE OBSOLESCENCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN THE LITERATURE OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Authors: HEISEY TERRY M.
Published: January 2008

According to Kuhn's The structure of scientific revolutions normal science makes progress under a unifying paradigm while the humanities flounder among many competing paradigms. Bibliometric reference analysis is here used to test for evidence of this dichotomy in publishing and citation patterns. 227 critical (humanities) papers (with 13,355 references) drawn randomly from exhaustive Dead Sea Scrolls bibliographies are compared with 162 archaeological (scientific) papers (2,494 references) from the same population. References in critical papers (where‐lack of paradigm unity diffuses research and impedes assimilation of individual papers) in general (with and without inclusion of ancient classics) and articles in particular (with/without) are found, as hypothesised, to have significantly higher average ages than references in the archaeological papers. Reference density ratios adjusted for changes in number of citable and citing papers suggest no decline in use with age for critical sources as is true in archaeology. Archaeological, but not critical, references cluster on a research front and are concentrated in the years of data collection. Periodicals (not less‐timely monographs) account, as hypothesised, for significantly more archaeological than critical papers, references, and references in articles only.
A SIMPLE EMPIRICAL METHOD FOR PREDICTING LIBRARY CIRCULATIONS
Authors: BURRELL QUENTIN L.
Published: January 2008

Recent work has demonstrated that stochastic models, incorporating a time parameter, have great potential value for library management in predicting future use of library materials, particularly in the presence of ageing of materials. In this paper a simple empirical Bayes method is presented which avoids the analytic complexity of earlier models and which may therefore be more attractive to the library manager. In particular, the ‘prediction profile’ is advocated as a useful additon to the manager's toolbox.
EFFICIENCY OF HIERARCHIC AGGLOMERATIVE CLUSTERING USING THE ICL DISTRIBUTED ARRAY PROCESSOR
Authors: RASMUSSEN EDIE M. , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

The implementation of hierarchic agglomerative methods of cluster anlaysis for large datasets is very demanding of computational resources when implemented on conventional computers. The ICL Distributed Array Processor (DAP) allows many of the scanning and matching operations required in clustering to be carried out in parallel. Experiments are described using the single linkage and Ward's hierarchical agglomerative clustering methods on both real and simulated datasets. Clustering runs on the DAP are compared with the most efficient algorithms currently available implemented on an IBM 3083 BX. The DAP is found to be 2.9–7.9 times as fast as the IBM, the exact degree of speed‐up depending on the size of the dataset, the clustering method, and the serial clustering algorithm that is used. An analysis of the cycle times of the two machines is presented which suggests that further, very substantial speed‐ups could be obtained from array processors of this type if they were to be based on more powerful processing elements.
INCLUSION OF RELEVANCE INFORMATION IN THE TERM DISCRIMINATION MODEL
Authors: BIRU TESFAYE , EL‐HAMDOUCHI ABDELMOULA , REES RODNEY S. , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

The term discrimination value of an index term has been proposed as a quantitative measure of the extent to which that term can discriminate between documents in bibliographic databases. Previous work has suggested that the most discriminating terms are those with medium frequencies of occurrence. This paper discusses the effect of including relevance data on the calculation of term discrimination values. Two algorithms are described that calculate the ability of index terms to discriminate between relevant documents, between non‐relevant documents or between relevant and non‐relevant documents. The application of these algorithms to several standard document test collections demonstrates that the exact form of the relationship between term frequency and term discrimination depends upon the particular type of discrimination which is being measured; in particular, medium frequency terms are not necessarily the best discriminators when relevance data is available. These results are compared with the discriminatory ability of terms as measured by their relevance weights, where the most discriminating terms are those with low frequencies of occurrence.
THE ORIGIN AND USE OF COPYMARKS IN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
Authors: SPRING MICHAEL B.
Published: January 2008

The recent popularity of desktop publishing has drawn attention to computer composition systems and document interchange standards. The paper begins with an historical review of copymarking and a conceptual description of the various types of copymarks. The basic categories of copymarks are described and related to the functions of composition systems. From this categorisation a taxonomy of copymarks is developed. Final form and revisable form document interchange standards continue to evolve. Revisable form document interchange standards are in essence copymark standards. As document interchange standards develop, some questions are being raised about the basis for the standards. Do we know enough about documents, copymarks, and composition systems to develop durable standards? Others have asked whether at more fundamental levels we know enough about documents and copymarking. Implications for future research on documents and document processing are described. Issues in the development of interchange standards and conversion systems are reviewed.
SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION OF GEOCHEMICAL DATA AND THE USE OF COMPUTER DATABASES
Authors: LE BAS M.J. , DURHAM J.
Published: January 2008

Scientific research is producing ever‐increasing amounts of quantitative data worthy of communication to scholars, but more than can be accommodated in refereed publications even though the number of journals is itself increasing. In the last twenty years, the quantity of geochemical analytical data produced world‐wide has increased a hundredfold or more. Geochemical and petrological journals nowadays rarely publish the complete sets of data; instead, only selected representative data are published and the remainder may or may not be put into supplementary publications. In the last five years, a scheme has been set up in the UK which co‐ordinates geochemical publications with a growing computerised geochemical data bank. The data bank comprises not only the geochemical analytical data actually printed on the journal pages but also the remainder of the data set pertaining to the published paper which could not be printed for lack of space. In collaboration with the journal editor, the data are collected into the data bank at the same time as the author is submitting his or her paper for publication. The author enters the data in a standard format and sends them as hard copy or in machine‐readable form to the data bank editor. The editor verifies the data and passes them for archiving to the National Geochemical Data Bank manager of the British Geological Survey whence they can be retrieved. The data are also relayed to the World Data Center for storage and further distribution.
STOCHASTIC MODELS FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF INDEX TERMS
Authors: NELSON MICHAEL J.
Published: January 2008

Distributions of index terms have been used in modelling information retrieval systems and databases. Most previous models used some form of the Zipf distribution. This work uses a probability model of the occurrence of index terms to derive discrete distributions which are mixtures of Poisson and negative binomial distributions. These distributions, the generalised inverse Gaussian‐Poisson and the Generalised Waring give better fits than the simpler Zipf distribution, particularly in the tails of the distribution where the high frequency terms are found. They have the advantage of being more explanatory and can incorporate a time parameter if necessary.