Acknowledgements
I have benefited from the valuable help and encouragement of several people in completing this dissertation. I wish to thank and express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my adviser Dr. Michael D. Cooper for his guidance and invaluable assistance throughout this project. I owe a special thanks to Dr. Ray R. Larson for allowing me to experiment with the system he designed and for providing computer time and unfailing support in the course of the study. I am thankful to Dr. Lawrence A. Rowe for his meticulous review of this report. I am also thankful to Dr. Michael K. Buckland for his encouragement and continuous interest in my studies. I am grateful to Ms. Judy Baker, Dr. Marcella Genz, and Ms. Elisabeth Rebman for encouraging their students to participate in the experiment and for allowing me to demonstrate the system during their scheduled class times. I am also indebted to MLIS and fellow Ph.D. students of the School of Library and Information Studies at UC Berkeley who performed online searches, filled out questionnaires, and endured my structured interviews.
It is my great pleasure to acknowledge the institutional support I received throughout my studies. I wish to thank the Department of Library Science of the University of Hacettepe for granting me a study-leave to pursue my doctoral studies. My especial thanks go to my teacher Dr. Ylhan Kum, the founder and former head of the Department, for his leadership and indefatigable efforts which he so generously expended for the betterment of education of the Turkish library and information professionals. I owe a debt of gratitude to the Fulbright Commission of the United States Information Agency for granting me a doctoral fellowship. I am also indebted in so many ways to all of the faculty and staff of the School of Library and Information Studies at UC Berkeley for providing fellowships, teaching opportunities, and constant help during my studies.
Above all, I owe heartfelt thanks to my wife and our son for their much needed love and ceaseless support throughout my studies. I am also greatly indebted to our families for their understanding, patience, and endurance throughout the years.