Stemming and search success in directory databases

[K.G. Schneider]

O.k., this needs some research on my part--but. In case anyone has a draft
article sitting on their desk or just happened to read this...

Can anyone point me to studies related to the relationship between stemming
and search success in metadata-heavy databases--by which I mean content
collections where users are searching primarily against metadata for the
items, not the items itself? 

I am investigating the Google appliance family, but have concerns that for
the database I manage (lii.org) the lack of stemming would degrade search
performance, already a shaky proposition because users are searching against
metadata describing the items, not the items themselves. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com