The retrieval decision problem is considered from the viewpoint of a decision theory approach. A threshold rule based on earlier rules for indexing decisions is considered and analyzed for retrieval decisions as a measure of retrieval performance. The threshold rule is seen as a good descriptive design measure of what a reasonable retrieval system…

This three-part report includes a brief history of the Defense Documentation Center (DDC) with a description of the collections and their accessibility; categorization of automatic indexing into three kinds with a brief description of the DDC system of machine-aided indexing; and an indication of some operational experiences with the system.…

The rules for catalog entries and punctuation outlined in this manual were used to prepare a computer-produced union catalog of the holdings of several libraries at the Eastman Kodak Company. The computer sorts digitally, considering first blanks, then punctuation marks, letters, and finally numbers. This results in a filing sequence which differs…

The Uniterm system of coordinate indexing, developed by the Armed Services Technical Information Agency, provides a method for the organization, storage, and retrieval of information. The contents of reports are analyzed, and terms are assigned to the documents. For each term there is a card upon which the accession number of documents assigned…

This report presents the principal objectives and results of the Context Information Processing Project and discusses the nature of context and its relationship to conventional models of information storage and retrieval. In this approach literature searching involves prediction, and context represents a new class of clues to be obtained and…

Sixth in a series of eight reports of a research study for the National Agricultural Library (NAL) on the effective utilization of bibliographic data bases in machine-readable form, this report deals with the query language, search strategy and related considerations for a particular information storage and retrieval system. One section of the…

The history, purpose, and operation of six computer-based information networks are described in general and nontechnical terms. In the introduction the many definitions of an information network are explored. Ohio College Library Center's network (OCLC) is the first example. OCLC began in 1963, and since early 1973 has been extending its services…

This paper on Thesauri in Educational Documentation attempts to show by description and analysis the difference in application between thesauri and classification schemes as indexing languages in documentary information systems, and from this to infer possible future developments. First, the differences between the pre-coordination and…

Guidelines are presented for the preparation of abstracts of technical literature on instructional systems development (ISD). Although specifically created for abstracting information during the preparation of a technical data file on ISD, the guidelines are sufficiently general to apply to other areas in which abstracts of technical literature…

The development of automatic indexing, abstracting, and extracting systems is investigated. Part I describes the development of tools for making syntactic and semantic distinctions of potential use in automatic indexing and extracting. One of these tools is a program for syntactic analysis (i.e., parsing) of English, the other is a dictionary of…

This project was designed to secure and screen available education materials appropriate for actualization of Comprehensive Career Education Model-1 (CCEM-1) objectives, and to process, assess, and classify selected potential commercial education materials for incorporation into instructional units and/or supportive educational activities. To…

Based on the need for indexing documents and interest profiles within a selective dissemination of information (SDI) system, the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, has compiled this thesaurus of terms related to water resources. Development terms describing design and construction activities, as well as biological and physical…

The report very briefly summarizes the research performed during the contract period March 1, 1964, to February 28, 1971. The emphasis of the research was on the discovery and development of techniques for automatically indexing and classifying documents. The research was limited to statistical techniques rather than semantic or syntactic. A…

Investigates the feasibility of using a distance measure for automatic sequential document classification. This property of the distance measure is used to design a sequential classification algorithm which classifies key words and analyzes them separately in order to assign primary and secondary classes to a document. (VT)

A procedure for automated indexing of pathology diagnostic reports at the National Institute of Health is described, including a discussion of English terms encoded into the Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology (SNOP)--a manual indexing language--resulting in effective automatic encoding. Morphosyntactic analysis and synonym substitutions are…