Study of strategies used in on‐line searching

The paper reports a study of the behaviour of on‐line searchers in looking for the answers to set questions. The work was carried out with a view to learning more about the way actual searches are conducted, so that instructions to users can be given to optimize the generation of references. The study suggests that developments in user education would be made considerably easier by some rationalization among file producers and systems, especially in spelling, vocabulary, basic commands and indexing philosophy.