Computers

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. Written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions, it is authoritative, in-depth, and concise, and the single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues.

This will be the third edition of the highly successful "Text Information Retrieval Systems". The book's purpose is to teach people who will be searching or designing text retrieval systems how the systems work. For designers, it covers problems they will face and reviews currently available solutions to provide a basis for more advanced study. For the searcher its purpose is to describe why such systems work as they do. The book is primarily about computer-based retrieval systems, but the principles apply to nonmechanized ones as well. The book covers the nature of information, how it is organized for use by a computer, how search functions are carried out, and some of the theory underlying these functions. As well, it discusses the interaction between user and system and how retrieved items, users, and complete systems are evaluated. A limited knowledge of mathematics and of computing is assumed. This third edition will be updated to include coverage of the WWW and current search engines. In many cases, examples of non-web searching will be replaced with web-based illustrations. Coverage of interfaces, various features available to assist searchers, and areas in which search assistance is not available will also be covered. In addition, the book will have a web dimension which will include relevant material available online, to be used in conjunction with the text. It is a follow-up to the award winning 2nd Edition. It focuses on computer-based system but basic principles can be applied to any information seeking context.

The user-centered approach is central to the creation of usable information systems, services, and institutions. Information system design should derive from user research into information needs, tasks accomplished in meeting those needs, and resources used in the tasks. "Information Tasks" summarizes user research, then presents design sketches of systems that illustrate how design is linked to research. Also discussed are usable information services and an overview of the organization and economics of information institutions. This comprehensive user-centered approach provides an agenda for information research, design, and education that challenges many accepted beliefs and suggests new directions for information work. "Information Tasks" is of interest to library and information science students and faculty interested in information storage and retrieval, user studies, and systems analysis design. Students and scholars of human factors in systems design, human-computer interaction, and cognitive engineering also find the text useful. It reviews user research from many disciplines, and links research to practical design issues. It provides a unified model for user studies and user-centered design, and includes how-to summaries of design chapters. It shows how designers can investigate their user communities. It provides a general template for the design process. It integrates all aspects of information design, and discusses library issues in the larger information context.

Automated Information Retrieval" describes a fully automated Boolean System and gives special attention to theoretical problems in automatic retrieval of textual information. The book details algorithms in each process in the system, including those that are radically new in the retrieval process and those that are adaptable to the individual. New approaches to evaluating information retrieval systems and studying their performance are included. This book reviews the general principles of constructing any system, such as an information retrieval system. It provides a detailed analysis of basic concepts such as information need, information, information crisis, and the notation of information retrieval. It examines the goal, function, structure, and language of an information retrieval system. It describes the construction of an information retrieval system (methods, algorithms, and approaches). It details different approaches to evaluating the results of information retrieval. It features new directions in the development of information retrieval systems.

For the first time in one comprehensive presentation, "Modern Information Systems for Managers" integrates some of the most recent and promising applications and technologies of information systems not found in current texts. Dr. Bidgoli's presentation offers several unique features to prepare future executives for effective utilization of information systems. The text presents coverage of the popular information systems technology within the context of information systems. Using this approach, Bidgoli has investigated all the important issues surrounding design and implementation of information systems including microcomputers, security issues, telecommunications and group support systems. The key features are: carefully examines new and future issues related to successful information systems design; gives the reader an understanding of upcoming technologies; contains a complete discussion of information systems analysis, design, and implementation; presents a comprehensive discussion or organizational, social, and legal impacts of information systems early in the text; each chapter contains learning objectives which leave the reader with a measurable goal; introduces various software products and their application to both micro and mainframe computers; and, each chapter concludes with 20 to 25 review questions. 'Practical Applications' presents numerous information systems applications in functional areas of business including: information systems in manufacturing, marketing, finance, human resource management, and strategic planning; internet and global information systems; decision support and executive information systems; group support systems; geographic information systems; multimedia and virtual reality; and, artificial intelligence and expert systems.

Technology does not invite a close examination of its own consequences because of its lengthy, intimate, and inevitable relationship with culture. In particular, the internet has delivered mixed blessings despite extravagant claims that it has revolutionized our lives and world. Issues concerning ethics and professionalism, privacy, autonomy, free speech, and ethics have often been recognized but rarely receive the careful analysis and illumination they deserve. Most of this Third Edition of "The Social Impact of Computers" is a study in the success of the computer in its incredibly wide variety of forms and applications. Its new chapters and reorganized material from the previous editions keeps its coverage of these issues appropriate and relevant. Richard Rosenberg has been instrumental in developing national and international privacy policies, particularly with respect to electronic media, as well as national and international approaches to free speech on the internet. Professor of Computer Science at Dalhousie University, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Key features include: new chapters on free speech, intellectual property rights, and computer crime and security; revised chapter on the information society; and two revised chapters on the government, including an analysis of the Microsoft antitrust case.

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. Written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions, it is authoritative, in-depth, and concise, and the single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues.