This study reports changes in online database searching at North Texas State University when equipment speed was increased. Data were from database vendor invoices and price and sale data of online equipment. The hypotheses examined the relationship between the decrease in the cost of online equipment and the change to faster online equipment and the change in the number of databases that changed for online types. The change in equipment was related to changes in the number of offline prints per hour, the average time per search, the average number of descriptors per search, the number of searches per month, and the rank order of database use over the studied period. The increase in the number of databases with billed types was related to the number of online billed types produced. The number of prints was related to the number of billed types. Time spent online was examined for annual seasonal cycles. The major statistical tool was time-series analysis, although other methods were applied.

This dissertation refines knowledge synthesis from publicly accessible databases, based on the model of D.R. Swanson. Knowledge synthesis endeavors bring together two or more non-interactive literatures to create combinatorial research data on a specific topic. In this endeavor the biomedical literature was searched on the anti-neoplastic agent nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) for its potential role as a functional food in the chemoprevention of breast cancer. Bibliometric cocitation was utilized to identify complementary but non-interactive literatures in the disciplines of biomedicine and dietary science. The continuing specialization and fragmentation of the cancer literature degenerates the potential usefulness of cross-disciplinary research and information. As the biomedical sciences become more specialized the potential increases for isolation of discoveries and for failures to connect science to the needs of the people. Within the information science discipline several techniques are available to bridge the isolation between discoveries recorded in different sets of literatures. Electronic database searching with combinatorial keyword entries, syllogistic modeling and bibliometric author cocitation analysis are the principle techniques applied in this endeavor. The research questions are addressed to the absence or presence of human in vivo research on breast cancer with the potentially chemopreventative functional food NDGA. Utilizing a syllogistic model the literatures …

The goal of this study is to increase understanding of information problems as they are revealed in interactions among users and search intermediaries during information retrieval. Specifically, this study seeks to investigate: (a) how interaction between users and search intermediaries reveals aspects of user information problems; (b) to explore the concept of representation with respect to information problems in interactive information retrieval; and (c) how user and search intermediaries focus on aspects of user information problems during the course of searches. This project extends research on interactive information retrieval, and presents a theoretical framework that synthesizes rational and non-rational questions concerning mental representation as it pertains to user's understanding of information problems.