Presenting search results to meet specific user needs

Users of information services need the technical content of documents rather than the documents themselves, and the results of a literature search should ideally be presented in such form that they can be readily assimilated and applied. The degree to which information can be pre‐processed is affected by various factors including the ratio of laboratory to information staff and the context of the enquiry. The traditional bibliography may not be the best way to meet a specific information requirement, and in any case is likely to be produced by computer to an increasing extent: continuous prose may render the content of the literature more accessible. For this purpose, computerized retrieval systems should be designed to permit a fairly high recall ratio, so that the information worker can carry out a final selection of material and treat it in the way most useful to the enquirer. Some examples are given to illustrate different methods of answering enquiries.