Decisive Factors in Choosing a Host System for Online Searching

Nevyjel, Alexander and Oberhauser, Otto Decisive Factors in Choosing a Host System for Online Searching. Nachrichten für Dokumentation, 1986, vol. 37, n. 3, pp. 122-126. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

More and more databases are available on more and more host systems. The market is growing in terms of supply as well as of demand. Usually, an intermediary service has access to a range of various vendors. So, if the searcher has selected specific databases fitting to a given query, his very next decision is the choice of the host. The most obvious decisive factor "cost" is often not final since real cost is difficult to calculate, depending on response time, comfort of query language, splitting of databases, form of contract, actual exchange rates, etc. Moreover, the authors' global annual statistics of cost per online session show only moderate variations between vendor systems. On the other hand, if precision and recall are accepted as measures for retrieval quality, an analysis of end-user questionnaires indicates considerable quality differences from search to search. Therefore, if the choice of the host can inlluence precision and recall, this certainly must be taken into account. Other factors like timeliness and type of implementation of a database, regional or local considerations, delivery time of offline prints, availability and reliability of the host as well as special features of the query language can be important for the choice of the host. The every-day practice of intermediary online searchers confirms that in addition to rational and financial considerations also psychological factors affect the individual decision for choosing a special system.

Item type:	Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords:	computerized information retrieval, online searching, host system, choice, decision criteria, costs
Subjects:	H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HK. Online hosts.
Depositing user:	Otto Oberhauser
Date deposited:	08 Feb 2013 19:22
Last modified:	02 Oct 2014 12:25
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/10760/18529

References

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