Analyzes a study of the effect of controlled variations in indexing vocabulary size on retrieval performance, using the Cranfield 200 and 1400 test collections. Sets of variable-length character strings were tested, in an application of the Cluster Hypothesis and in a series of linear associative retrieval experiments. (Author/SW)

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)…

In a sample of 25 political science journals, indexing information given by Ulrich's was found to be inadequate. (PF)

A "mini-thesaurus" has been prepared by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Media and Technology. It is intended not only to provide a list of ERIC terms associated with instructional technology, but also to put those terms into an arrangement whereby an ERIC indexer or user who is not familiar with the area can find the right terminology for his…

The PREserved Context Index System (PRECIS) developed for subject indexing for the British National Bibliography is discussed as a basis for various studies relating to classification which could be made from its initial phrases, strings, entries, and back-up structure. (Author)

A discussion of the theory and process of indexing--taxonomy, word frequency, and interrelationships of terms. (LS)

Considers the role of human intellectual indexing in the face of increasingly sophisticated automatic indexing techniques. Critiques the comparative research and explores the nature of human analysis of messages or texts and efforts to formulate rules to make human practice more predictable. (Author/LRW)

This article provides a brief history of the development of library subject guides (often referred to as pathfinders) from the late 1800s to the present. During this period, subject guides have changed both their focus and format. The needs of academic institutions at the turn of the 20th century were very different than they are today, and…

Reports on a series of programs that have been developed to process data bases, consisting of textual items, and to index and arrange (classify) the data items in accordance with an automatically generated classification system. (Author)

Working toward the goal of an automatic indexing system which is truly competitive with human indexing in cost, time and comprehensiveness the Machine-Aided Indexing (MAI) process was developed at the Defense Documentation Center (DDC). This indexing process uses linguistic techniques but does not require complete syntactic analysis of sentences…

A comparison was made of the performance in an automatic information retrieval environment of user queries and document abstracts available in natural language form in both English and French. The results obtained indicate that the automatic indexing and retrieval techniques actually used appear equally effective in handling the query and document…

The KWAC Index Generation Program was implemented at the State University of New York at Buffalo. It consists of only 252 statements for the COBOL Compiler Edition V310222 on the CDC6400 computer under the KRONOS operating system in the batch mode. The KWAC program is essentially a KWIC index generator designed for a special purpose for use in a…

An indexing system to 1850 documents on library automation, systems studies in libraries, and indexing systems was developed for use in instruction and research. The indexing system consists of an on-line searched coordinate index, a printed coordinate index, a subject authority list, an abstract bulletin containing the 1850 documents in the…

A report of several comparisons designed to measure the retrieval effectiveness of machined-aided indexing and manual indexing. (Author)

The abstracts obtained so far are of sufficiently good quality to indicate that large-scale testing of the methods of the automatic abstracting system is warranted. (Author/MM)