An initial attempt at presenting a coherent approach to the design and analysis of file structures include a discussion of the relative effeciency of different file implementations as a function of usage statistics. The fundamental differences between item and descriptor-organized files are discussed in terms of input-output requirements.…

Five facets of background information are intended to be helpful to persons interested in the construction and use of a thesaurus, in the sense of a standardized language for communication with and between information storage and retrieval systems. Based on the Thesaurus of Engineering and Scientific Terms (TEST) as an example: (1) the thesaurus…

What is the desirability and usefulness of different thesaurus displays used either singly or in groups? Is an alphabetical listing of terms with cross references more useful to an indexer than a complete hierarchical display? Is the permuted or the rotated term index more useful to the indexer or retriever? Is an alphabetical display along with a…

A five-year development program plan was drawn up for the Defense Documentation Center (DDC). This report presents in summary form the results of various surveys and reviews performed in selected areas of micrographics to support the efforts of the program's planners. Exhibits of supporting documentation are presented, together with a discussion…

The selected documents on higher education that are compiled in this bibliography were abstracted during 1968 for inclusion in the U.S. Office of Education's monthly publication, Research in Education (RIE). The materials were abstracted by clearinghouses in the ERIC system other than the one on higher education. The bibliography contains 628…

This fourth annual report summarizes the investigation of (1) a "sentence dictionary" and (2) a "word government dictionary" for use in automatic abstracting and extracting systems. The theory behind the sentence dictionary and its compilation is that a separation of significant from nonsignificant sentences can be accomplished on the basis of…

This paper is concerned primarily with the structure of language and how knowledge about this structure can lead to improved automated information retrieval. The paper discusses developments in linguistics and the application of linguistics to information retrieval, especially fact retrieval and indexing. For fact retrieval it is proposed that…

The program is a general purpose information retrieval program which can be used with a file of fixed format documents. Designed to be used by noncomputer personnel, the program provides flexibility in search requests and output format, which enable it to satisfy users' requests for information promptly and inexpensively. To insure easy adaptation…

Designed as an aid to researchers and others primarily interested in the field of higher education, this bibliography lists documents on higher education that appeared in the January through June 1969 issues of RESEARCH IN EDUCATION (RIE). In addition to documents abstracted by the Clearinghouse on Higher Education, it includes documents on higher…

The Information Search Language (ISL), described in this report, is a problem-oriented language designed to facilitate the manipulation of real character strings with the Control Data 1604 computer. The report gives instructions for the language; these may be classified as Pseudo-ops, Word-Oriented instructions, Character-string instructions,…

Beginning with volume 20, "Nuclear Science Abstracts" (NSA) citations, exclusive of abstracts, have been recorded on magnetic tape. The articles have been categorized by 34 elements of the citations such as title, author, source, journal, report number, etc. At the time of this report more than 130,000 citations had been stored for…

In a document retrieval, or other pattern matching environment where stored entities (documents) are compared with each other, or with incoming patterns (search requests), it appears that the best indexing (property) space is one where each entity lies as far away from the others as possible; that is, retrieval performance correlates inversely…

This year's annual report of COSATI contains the history, charter, and accomplishments of the committee since its inception in 1962. Agency reports are arranged by subject developments that cut across departmental lines. Significant advances in technical communications are reported, as well as some management information systems. In addition, the…

The purpose of the present study is to explore cost-effectiveness factors that affect the choice among alternative system designs for retrospective searching services. A cost-effectiveness model that may be used to evaluate potential systems was derived, and a statement of the general magnitude of costs that the American Psychological Association…

Primary research journals and meetings have long been the principal vehicles for communicating science information within the physics and astronomy community. Both vehicles have been slowly and subtly running into major problems because of expanding sizes and goals of the community, growing interdependencies of subject areas and increasing need…