Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information Two Volumes (1959) / Chapter Skim
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A Combined Indexing-Abstracting System
A Combined Indexing-Abstracting System
Pages 449-460
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From page 449... ...
The "raw" date are derived from the extensive available world literature. The end result of this accumulation wid consist of a series of handbooks In index format which are designed to act as a clear and authoritative guide to the world literature published cluring the last few decades.
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From page 450... ...
As it has become virtually impossible for the active scientist to read all of the original papers which are pertinent to his field of endeavor, he has begun to rely more heavily on secondary publications as an information source. The value of informative abstracting, carried on by individuals who are highly qualified scientists themselves, therefore becomes readily apparent.
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From page 451... ...
Many examples of significant data which have been similarly overlooked easily come to mind, resulting in completely unnecessary, time-consuming, and expensive duplication of effort. As a result of the relatively high information content of the average scientific paper which must be compressed into the brief and concise format of the usual abstract, many subjective decisions must be made by abstracters concerning inclusion and exclusion problems.
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From page 452... ...
It is believed that the number of subject headings should remain relatively constant as the scope of the indexing endeavor is diminished. In other words, if the area of information to be covered is decreasecI, those subject headings pertaining specifically to the new field of concentration must be further subdivided and refined, with the result that as many of them are used to describe the restricted area as were formerly employed for the less limited field of literature coverage.
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From page 453... ...
As a result, here again, there may be a loss of information contained in the abstract which has undergone indexing procedures. All that has been said about irretrievability resulting from abstracting holds true with respect to indexing and gives rise to an even more unsatisfactory state of affairs.
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From page 454... ...
Instead, a detailed and relatively lengthy hybridized index entry results, containing much more information than the conventional entry and easily accessible by means of the alphabetized subject heading approach. Conventional abstracts of an informative nature, containing all indexable items, can be relatively easily transformed into detailed index entries.
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From page 455... ...
indexing procedure logically gives rise to two index entries for each "bit" of independent information. In our present undertaking, the subject is usually a chemical compound or group of compounds and the object, the biological entity, which may be an organ, an organ system, a physiological function, a disease or a symptom of a disease.
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From page 456... ...
of interest, there are hundreds of entries under the chemical, epinephrine, as a main heading and the physiological function, blood pressure, as a subheading. If the word sequence in the index entry is standardized so that the verb invariably follows the subheading, entries which are alphabetized first under the main heading and then under the subheading, can still further be alphabetized under the verb.
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From page 457... ...
The recording of negative data by this means would result in a great saving of time. Users of such an index would rarely find it necessary to consult the original paper, since reference to the index entry would assure them that the particular compound in question hacT indeed been tested in a certain animal species under specific conditions, by a particular route of administration, at one or more dosage levels and found to be inactive with respect to the biological response under study.
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From page 458... ...
Although the present undertaking will result in a conventional printed index, it is easily amenable to machine methods. The coding problems have been minimized by the use of standard main headings, subheadings, and active verbs.
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From page 459... ...
type of index~ng than the manual approach without a proportional increase in costs. The savings effected by conversion to machines might wed be used for the provision of more adequate indexing for, after ah, no system of literature control, however intensively mechanized it may be, can ever be any better or more efficient than the accuracy ofthe raw material which it is called upon to process and the meticulous detail with which it is indexed for the purposes of storage and retrieval.
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