Distinguishes between document-oriented and user-oriented indexing and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of request-oriented and automated indexing. Request-oriented indexing is difficult to implement with human, a priori indexing. Automated indexing can be tailored to individual requests, but most research in this area focuses on global…

Discusses standards as tools to promote compatibility and improve practice, the role of research versus expert opinion in creating standards, and the changing scope of indexing standards. The current draft of the NISO (National Information Standards Organization) American Standard Guidelines for Indexes in Information Retrieval (Z39.4) is…

A statistical method of drawing index terms or "highlights" from text is presented that uses no stop list, stem or other language- and domain-specific components, allowing operation in any domain or language with minimal modification. Some experimental results are presented, showing operation in six different languages. (67 references)…

Examines the knowledge base of an intermediary expert system that provides advice about search term selection. Topics include a proposal for an integrated approach, including an option focusing on terminological attributes based on knowledge acquired from professional searchers; and the content of the knowledge base and the research needed to…

Describes the functions of book and periodical indexes and characteristics of varieties of book indexes. Problems related to periodical indexing including indexing policy, indexing language, depth of indexing, authors' names, titles, the physical form of indexes, indexes to single volumes of periodicals, and cumulative indexes are discussed.…

This research reports an algorithmic approach to the automatic generation of thesauri for electronic community systems. The techniques used include term filtering, automatic indexing, and cluster analysis. The Worm Community System, used by molecular biologists studying the nematode worm C. elegans, was used as the testbed for this research.…

Describes automatic information retrieval system designed and built to handle Arabic data. Discusses cost-effectiveness of automatic indexing. Compares retrieval results using words as index terms versus stems and roots. Includes 19 tables; 60 queries using full words and relevance judgments are appended. (JAK)

Uncovers issues in indexing that need scientific research, including the cognitive processes of indexers and users; vocabulary control; how best to supplement human indexers' intellectual effort with computer capabilities; structure and layout of indexes on the printed page and on the computer screen; and evaluation of indexes. (Contains 21…

Presents the human evaluation of ILIAD, a program for machine-aided indexing that was designed to assist expert librarians in computer-aided indexing and document analysis. Topics include controlled indexing and free indexing; natural language and concept-based information retrieval; evaluation methodology; syntactic variations; and a comparison…

In World Wide Web indexing: (1) the creation process is automated; (2) the indexes are merely descriptive, not analytical of document content; (3) results may be sorted differently depending on the search engine; and (4) indexes link directly to the resources. This article compares the indexing methods and querying options of the search engines…

The Latent Semantic Indexing and MatchPlus systems examine similar contexts in which words appear and create representational models that capture the similarity of meaning of terms and then use the representation for retrieval. Text Retrieval Conference experiments using these systems demonstrate the computational feasibility of using…

The emphasis of this text is that the problems of information retrieval are the intellectual ones of subject analysis and description. These problems are not easily solved by technology alone, although certain inroads are being made by knowledge-based expert systems and other computer aids to indexing. Linguistic approaches are also showing…

Review of the literature on international computerized indexing systems for visual materials also describes technologies available for reproducing images, highlighting videotex, videodisk, and digital storage. Advances in the ability to interface these technologies with each other and with online retrieval systems are discussed. (76 notes with…

Presents an algorithm that automatically extracts words and phrases containing geographic place names or characteristics from a text document and uses them as input to database functions that use spatial reasoning to approximate statistically the geoposition referenced in the text. Preliminary results and future work are discussed. (28 references)…

Describes a study of the retrieval results of World Wide Web search engines. Research quantified accurate matches versus matches of arguable quality for 200 subjects relevant to undergraduate curricula. Both "evaluative" engines (Magellan, Point Communications) and "nonevaluative" engines (Lycos, InfoSeek, AltaVista) were…