| An individual searching for information on any given topic in the field of higher education is confronted by multiple secondary services. Each of these, from ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) to Higher Education Abstracts, uses different indexing methods, different access techniques, different information tools, and different terminology to identify a single topic. Because no single information service covers all the types of literature to which a searcher needs access, and because of the variable vocabularies and vocabulary practices, the task of locating information about higher education topics is inordinately time consuming at best; at the worst, a searcher fails to find important information, becomes frustrated with the process, receives too many or too few citations, or gives up in despair.;It is out of this in-depth study of information science and its tools that the possibility of a Cross-Reference Index (CRI) for the field of higher education emerges as a viable solution. Part Three projects the technique for the creation of such a tool, and Part Four reports on the process of its development as actually undertaken in the dissertation.;The completed CRI, containing over 6000 terms and 25,000 cross references, is appended to the dissertation as Volume Two. In this new reference document, not in use in any other field of study, higher-education-oriented terms have been selected from six major information systems used by searchers. Cross references direct the user not only to terms similar to the one he is currently using to describe his topic, but they also identify exactly which of the six secondary services employs each of the terms.;This dissertation studies the problem of information retrieval in the field of higher education. The purpose is to create a new information science tool dedicated specifically to higher education, thereby ameliorating the difficulties faced by the searcher. In order to accomplish this task, an understanding of the principles and techniques of information science is necessary. This is undertaken in Parts One and Two, the Statement of the Problem and the Review of the Literature. |
