Suggestions for exploiting the potential of on‐line remote access information retrieval and display systems

The ideal remote access, on‐line, information retrieval and display system would exploit the inherent potential of on‐line program capabilities to a far greater extent than those currently employed by on‐going, on‐line information systems. Special emphasis would be placed on the utilization of the feedback capabilities of on‐line user‐computer interactions as a means of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of search and display capabilities. The most significant contribution of online program capabilities to the advancement of information retrieval is their ability to top the immense computational capacities of the computer as a retrieval tool. The ideal on‐line information retrieval system would offer statistical inference analysis and heuristic optimization programs as aids to query formulation. In fact, the ideal system would include on‐line programs capable of automatically computing, generating, and executing, optimal query formulations and retrieval on request. Implementation of expanded on‐line capabilities to achieve the ideal on‐line information retrieval and display system will have a considerable economic impact on the entire field of information science.