Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination

Amitabha Chatterjee

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780081020258
• eBook ISBN: 9780081020265
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Information Management
• Index: Business

Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination provides Information on how to organize and disseminate library and information science (LIS), a subject that is taught in many international Library Information Science university programs. While there are many books covering different areas of the subject separately, this book covers the entire subject area and incorporates the latest developments. - Presets an overview of the entire subject, covering all relevant areas of library and information science - Contains bulletpoints that highlight key features in each chapter - Written in an accessible language, this book is aimed at a wide audience of LIS academics

Chapter I

Index and Indexing

Abstract

According to British Standards Institution, an index is “a systematic guide to the location of words, concepts or other items in books, periodicals or other publications.” Indexing is the art of preparing an index. The ideas behind subject indexing originated from the ideas behind subject cataloguing. It was Charles Ammi Cutter who first gave in 1876 the idea of “specific subject” in his Rules for Dictionary Catalogue. Cutter also laid down some rules for multi-word compound subject representations. J. Kaiser in his Systematic Indexing laid down the rule for determining the relative significance of the different components of a compound subject. The rule said that all the subjects should be broken down into what he called a Concrete, followed by a Process. E.J. Coates found reasons for Kaiser’s ideas of Concrete and Process, and put forward his own ideas of Thing, Material and Action in that order. S.R. Ranganathan developed his idea of categories or “facets” primarily as a basis for constructing his Colon Classification scheme. He successfully applied the idea of facet analysis in his Dictionary Catalogue Code as a basis for construction of compound subject headings for the dictionary catalogue. For this purpose the order of significance was Energy, Matter, Personality, Space, and Time. J.E.L. Farradane suggested in 1950 an alternative approach to compound subject headings, but not considering the component terms alone of the heading. He showed relationship between each pair of terms. J.R. Sharp in his SLIC Indexing (Selective Listing in Combination) tried to find out only some selective combinations of elements contained in a document for using as index headings. An index has two basic objectives to fulfill: it should be able to retrieve from a collection as many documents as are relevant to a query and the retrieved documents should be able to provide precise answer to the query. As such, the efficiency of an index can be measured from these two angles by finding out “recall ratio” and “precision ratio.”

Keywords

Index; indexing; subject cataloguing; subject indexing; systematic indexing; relational indexing; SLIC indexing; recall ratio; precision ratio

I.1 Introduction

Three groups of people are mainly concerned with documents and information. They are (1) the producers, i.e., authors, editors, publishers, etc.; (2) the middlemen, who organize the documents or information for serving them at need; and (3) the consumers or clients, i.e., readers, users, or information seekers [1]. Librarians and information workers, who play the important role of middlemen, have to devise and utilize some aids or tools which can help them to perform their function efficiently. Index is the most widely used such an aid.

I.2 Evolution of Index

It is queer that although printing came in vogue in 15th century, indexes appeared much later. It was perhaps due to, as Ranganathan and Neelameghan have pointed out, delay in spread of universal education [2]. Historically, the first significant work in this field came in 1737 in the form of A Complete Concordance to the Bible, compiled by Alexander Cruden, published from London. However, Knight has mentioned about a publication appearing much before Cruden’s work which had some sort of an index, viz., Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (1595 edition) [3]. After the publication of Cruden’s work, the practice of compiling indexes to individual works gradually developed. Subsequently, indexing of multi-volume works like Encyclopedia Britannica was started. In the next stage came the retrospective indexes to periodicals like Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, 1802–1906. Finally, in the beginning of the 20th century the present variety of indexing periodicals started appearing providing continuous indexing service. The pace was set in this direction by Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, started by H. W. Wilson Co. of USA (now merged with EBESCO Publishing) in 1901.

I.3 Need of Index

Though appearance of index was delayed, its need was felt in 17th century itself, when some scholars described it as an essential implement and its omission as a great sin. The famous critic, Dr. Samuel Jonson, said in 1750, that “when a reader recollects any incident, he may easily find it with the aid of an index.” In 19th century, legal steps were suggested in some countries to prevent omission of indexes in books [2]. However, the index achieved its coveted position only in the 20th century and established itself as an essential adjunct to almost every work that was published. The main reasons for preparing indexes may be briefly stated as follows:

Proliferation in production of literature, specially micro literature;

Emergence of multi-faceted documents and documents dealing with interdisciplinary subjects;

Rise in demand for quick retrieval of information;

Repetitive use of documents containing information;

Impracticability of scanning of literature beyond a limited number.

I.4 Definition of Index

The Latin word “indicare,” from which has come the English word “index,” means “he who or that which points the way” [3]. An index, therefore, indicates or refers to the location of an object or idea. It may thus be defined as “a systematic guide to (1) items contained in or (2) concepts derived from a collection (i.e., the materials indexed)” [1]. According to British Standards Institution, an index is “a systematic guide to the location of words, concepts or other items in books, periodicals or other publications. An index consists of a series of entries appearing, not in the order in which they appear in the publication, but in some other order (e.g., alphabetical) chosen to enable the user to find them quickly, together with references to show where each item is located” [4].

I.4.1 Characteristics of Index

The above definitions clearly reveal the following characteristics of an index:

It is a guide to the items/concepts dealt with in a document;

The items in an index are arranged generally in alphabetical order;

There are references to show where these items are located in the document.

I.4.2 Difference from Bibliography

Although an index is also a list like a bibliography, it is basically different from the latter. While a bibliography lists documents, an index lists concepts or other items in a document. In other words, the unit for listing in a bibliography is a document, while that in an index is an item, concept or information. A catalogue also lists documents, but only those documents which are available in a library or a group of libraries.

I.4.3 Types of Index

Indexes can be grouped in various ways if we view them from different angles:

Book index, periodical index, and news index

Bibliographic index, analytical or subject index and annotated index

Specific index and relative index

Name index, place index, and word index

Retrospective index, current index and cumulative index

Comprehensive index and restricted index

General index and special index

International index, national index, and local index

Citation index

Literary index and review index

Alphabetical index and classified ind...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Chapter A. Background
• Chapter B. Information Sources
• Chapter C. Information Users
• Chapter D. User Empowerment (UEm)
• Chapter E. Organization of Information
• Chapter F. Information Service
• Chapter G. Current Awareness Service
• Chapter H. Selective Dissemination of Information
• Chapter I. Index and Indexing
• Chapter J. Indexing Language
• Chapter K. Controlled Vocabulary (CV)
• Chapter L. Indexing Methods
• Chapter M. Assigned Indexing
• Chapter N. Derived Indexing
• Chapter O. Information Consolidation
• Chapter P. Documentation List
• Chapter Q. Translation Service (TS)
• Chapter R. Document Delivery Service (DDS)
• Chapter S. Community Information Service (CIS)
• Chapter T. Evaluation of Information Service
• Chapter U. Information Centers
• Chapter V. Information Systems and Networks
• Chapter W. Promotion of IOD Activities
• Chapter X. Standards for IOD Activities
• Chapter Y. Automated Information Organization
• Chapter Z. Recent Trends in IOD
• Index