Abstract
The project Online Access to Knowledge (OAK) has developed a computer intermediary for selected users of the Department of Energy's DOE/RECON and BASIS online information retrieval systems. Its purpose is to enable people who have little or no training or experience in bibliographic searching to conduct their own searches, without the assistance of a trained librarian, hence permitting the user to work in both a place and time of his or her choosing. The purpose of this article is to report on the design and the rationale for the design. OAK software consists of both a tutorial and an assistance program. The latter does not employ a command language, hence obviates the need for a searcher to learn the formal language usually associated with an online database search service. It is central to our approach that this system does not supplant the user's ultimate primacy in knowing what he or she is looking for, nor in judging the results. © 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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