Experimental use of a program for computer-aided subject-index production

Information retrieval research in the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield: 1965-1985

“…A fall-back position lay in investigating a more appropriate, low-technology option, that of providing assistance to indexers by allowing them to record indexing phrases, and having the machine undertake the more routine work of producing the entries appropriate for each subject heading. This was done by applying articulation automatically in order to produce the entries, and sorting and arranging them for display in a well-organized printed index [17][18][19][20]60]. The method is applicable not merely to chemistry but to any subject matter, but has little applicability in languages other than Enghsh.…”

“…The first published index produced in this way was to a bibliography of the publications of the Safety in Mines Research Establishment (now part of the Health and Safety Executive) [20]; somewhat later, the index to World Textile Abstracts was produced routinely in this way, and others followed, with incorporation of the routines into at least one major free-text software package. Indeed, the recent government public enquiry into the construction of the nuclear power complex at Sizewell in East Anglia benefitted from a printed subject index of this kind for all submissions, updated daily.…”