The problem of determining the optimal cross-reference structure for a given index and for a given community of users is discussed. A cross-reference structure is represented as a graph in which the nodes are index terms and the links are relations between index terms. In order to clarify the concept of 'level of cross-referencing' the…

Two articles discuss the clustering of composite representations in the Cystic Fibrosis Document Collection from the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE file. Clustering is evaluated as a function of the exhaustivity of composite representations based on Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and citation indexes, and evaluation of retrieval…

An indexer faces unique challenges when the genre consists of biographical material written for children. The narrative prose style demands vividly descriptive indexing terms, but the youthful audience requires a control of vocabulary and a clear, simple presentation. The literature of library and information science yields a few sources on the…

The Insurance Division of the Special Libraries Association began an index to insurance magazines, the "Insurance Periodicals Index" (IPI), in 1962. This study examines its historical development. The index was published monthly in an insurance trade journal and then cumulated into an annual edition. Part of the background for its…

These two articles discuss clustering structure in the Cystic Fibrosis Document Collection, which is derived from the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE file. The exhaustivity of four subject representations and two citation representations is examined, and descriptor-weight thresholds and similarity thresholds are used to compute…