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This chapter reviews published studies of the use of pictorial information. Examining image user studies surfaces several research questions often addressed by this body of work, as well as some frequently encountered problems. These questions and problems organize this survey of the literature. Image user studies were included in two valuable reviews of digital image research and development, published by Christie Stephenson and Corinne Jörgensen in 1999 (Jörgensen, 1999; Stephenson, 1999). This overview considers research since that time, focusing on assessment that was not targeted at a single system or service. While attempting to incorporate some interesting research from the information and educational technology communities, this discussion of image delivery as an aspect of digital library development limits coverage of those important literatures.

Sci‐Mate consists of two components: the Universal Online Searcher, a gateway program for accessing online databases; and the Personal Data Manager, a database management system that facilitates the design and manipulation of databases on the microcomputer. In this article, Henry Pisciotta discusses the flexibility and limitations of Sci‐Mate.

Search Helper was selected as a system for introducing the Carnegie‐Mellon University community to do‐it‐yourself database searching. Use of Search Helper was offered without charge to CMU students and faculty. User satisfaction and reaction to the service were monitored with a simple survey. Preliminary results of the survey are reported along with critical evaluations of the system's capabilities and performance. Search Helper proved extremely popular with library users. Specific suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of this gateway software package focus upon the type of documentation and error messages available to users.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

The purpose of this paper is to study the information‐seeking behaviors of art historians.

A survey of art historians was done to ascertain their use of e‐resources. The paper discusses the impact of electronic resources and digital image databases on the research methodologies of today's art historians.

Although art historians depend on using the library for research, many have a rather limited awareness of electronic resources and have not fully developed the skills to utilize then to their fullest potential.

This follows up on Deirdre R. Stam's 1984 study of the information‐seeking behaviors of art historians.

Information-seekers Challenge Libraries and Information-providers

This essay engages the work of sociologist George Herbert Mead and political theorist William E. Connolly, applying a reading of their understanding of the criminal other to the development of Illinois’ and South Carolina's penal systems at the turn of the nineteenth century. Despite an influx of European immigrants, Illinois politicians and prison officials fashioned an approach to corrections that relied on rehabilitation through assimilation as the core component of disciplining its convict population. In contrast to this approach, South Carolina fashioned a penology based upon the principle of exclusion, one that enshrined retribution over rehabilitation in the paradigm of punishment. The essay concludes by comparing the importance of racial and ethno-cultural politics in shaping regional and national debates over correctional policy and by examining the primary function race plays in explaining the current backlash against the rehabilitative ideal informing so much of contemporary penology.