PaperChase. Self-service bibliographic retrieval
G. L. Horowitz, J. D. Jackson and H. L. Bleich
During the past three years, from terminals within Beth Israel Hospital,
Boston, 3,654 persons used a computer program called PaperChase to search
the medical literature. While performing 39,022 searches, these persons had
1,976,421 references displayed and selected 449,690 of them for printing.
Throughout this period, the program underwent continual modification. Each
year the number of searches increased--from 10,678 to 11,541 to 16,803.
Each year the percentage of new users who were unsuccessful decreased--from
16 to 13 to 11. By the end of the third year, 549 people had completed 20
or more searches. PaperChase enables people to search the medical
literature themselves, and thus provides a new experience in computerized
bibliographic retrieval. When made available without charge in a teaching
hospital, PaperChase is widely used.
