Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information Two Volumes (1959) / Chapter Skim
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Subject Analysis for Information Retrieval
Subject Analysis for Information Retrieval
Pages 855-866
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From page 855... ...
are to be retrieved when a particular term is sought. The second stage can only be ignored by a system which relies solely on independent descriptors, used either in correlation or in simple dictionary form.
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From page 856... ...
All these forms of analysis are used in different systems of information retrieval. For example, it is general in the indexing of chemical substances to replace the trivial name of a chemical, a single word, by a compound term derived by physical analysis: the parts used are either functional groups (in standard nomenclature and in recent "ciphers")
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From page 857... ...
The level of semantic analysis must depend on the purpose for which it is undertaken, and must be defined in some way by the designer of the indexing system. Techniques for defining the required semantic level are therefore needed, and have been provided by workers in this field.
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From page 858... ...
Categories In all three techniques of analysis, therefore, the choice of semantic level of indexing terms is aided or controlled by the formulation of categories: "concepts of high generality and wide application, fabricated by the mind with direct or indirect reference to the experiential world, and employed by the mind in the interpretation of that world." It was no doubt recognition of this common feature of several techniques of analysis which led the International Study Conference on Classification for Information Retrieval (Dorking, May 1957) to conclude that "there is general agreement that the most helpful form of classification scheme for information retrieval is one which groups terms into welldefinec3 categories." It is further of interest and importance to note that the three techniques of analysis considered above, applied in the field of science and technology, have
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From page 859... ...
Vickery's "facets," as follows: A Class inclusion Material of composition Whole-part Process Agent Patient or product Attributive Negative B Process Apparatus Product Starting-material Intermediate Conclition Made-from Combination-including C Substance, product Organ or part Constituent Property Patient Action, operation or process Agent Apparatus If we roughly equate Attributive, Condition, and Property, then the only categories not present in Al three lists are Class inclusion in A (and this is in fact dealt with in other ways by B and C) , Negative in A and Intermediate in B
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From page 860... ...
The next level of analysis of relations between terms in a compound is to provide further specifically identified relational particles to link related terms. Farradane, indeed, relies wholly on nine such particles, the "operators," and does not categorise the indexing terms.
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From page 861... ...
At the opposite extreme we have the typical faceted classification scheme, in which the terms in each category are arranged in a hierarchy of subordinate and coordinate relations, and the descriptor (class number) is a symbol which expresses the exact position of the term in the hierarchy, i.e., its relations to adjacent terms in the hierarchy.
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From page 862... ...
If a given retrieval system aims to serve users in all these fields, then provision must be made for all the inclusion chains, and for the selection of a given chain according to the interests of the searcher. As the aforementioned International Study Conference on Classification concluded, "in constructing schemes of classification and in applying them to a retrieval system, the fullest consideration must be given to providing alternative approaches for different users.
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From page 863... ...
, greater discrimination, in the sense of more terms, must be introduced into the retrieval system. Apart from this, literary warrant also supplies the data for establishing inclusion chains, coordinations in array, and interlocking relations for building into the information lattice.
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From page 864... ...
The alternative solution is to establish as detailed an information lattice as possible, building in ah the terms and their relations encountered in a close study of the literature. This is the aim set in detailed faceted classification schemes.
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From page 865... ...
P LUHN, A statistical approach to mechanized" literature searching, International Business Machines Corporation, New York, Research Paper RC-3, 30 JanUarY, 1957.
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