Search

The article presents information on the use of a type of matrix to analyze citations of scientific papers. Scientific papers have a series of citations belonging to the previous literature. It is possible to investigate the internal connections among papers in a group, whose papers are frequently cited by themselves, by examining their citations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the measurements by which the internal connections of a group of scientific papers are measured. The techniques of using the type of matrix is further developed to carry out the analysis of a certain type of group of scientific papers.

This report describes the results of automatic processing of a large number of scientific papers according to a rigorously defined criterion of coupling. The population of papers under study was ordered into groups that satisfy the stated criterion of interrelation. An examination of the papers that constitute the groups shows a high degree of logical correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the mechanical methods of enlargement production and related processes in use at the U.S. Library of Congress. The production speed, which has been initiated by the continuous enlargers just described with their continuous rolls of sensitized paper in place of the cut sheets used in the past, is maintained in the next step, the automatic processing of the exposed paper. An important feature of these film processors consists of a continuous replenishment apparatus which maintains all the processing solutions at constant strength regardless of the footage of paper that passes through the solutions.

The article presents information the Remington Rand Photoclerk paper cutter acquired by the Queens Borough Public Library to simplify clerical tasks. The Queens model is built around a Nikor Safety Trimmer, to reduce the hazards Involved. The Safety Trimmer is placed on a plywood box with the film holder on the left and a paper stop on the right. It will accommodate a full roll of developed sensitized paper and provides for fairly accurate cut-off with a receptacle for the cut slips.

The article reports that the art and science of recording illustration and text is a vital instrumentality in what is sometimes referred to as civilization. Research and developments in printing, photography and in Photronic Onset are rooted in the need to advance the science and craft of accurate recording, with or without printing plates. Photography requires wet chemicals, considerable time to process a negative and print on paper, and to dry both negative and paper. There is a wide range of requirements for the reproduction of copy for many purposes in commercial, educational, and governmental business systems.

A detailed comparison of how 334 papers in Vol. 112 of Physical Review form related groups according to two criteria of relatedness. The criteria are: (1) the Analytic Subject Index as used by the editors of the Physical Review; and (2) the method of Bibliographic Coupling. The similarities and differences between the groups thus formed are illustrated and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the identification of research papers by physical units appearing the periodical "American Documentation" in 1963. It was hoped that through the identification of the units, specification of ranges and coincidence of units papers in reasonably broad research fields could be identified. This approach would eliminate those papers not containing the specified units in the specified ranges and coincidences. For example, it may be hypothesized that a nuclear physicist should request papers reporting experimental determinations of neutron cross sections for incident neutron energies between 1 and 20 MeV.

Discussions relating to the identification of courses and the development of curricula for the information- science field cannot yield meaningful results unless the conceptual framework of the field is first delimited and its basic segments defined. Starting with the current ASIS definition of information science, an analysis is made of the rationale of current thinking relevant to the conceptual boundaries and intellectual content of the field. Information science is analyzed to be comprised of the segments of: (1) Conceptualization, (2) Storage/Transmission, and (3) Utilization. Two of the segments are shown to be based on subjective notions, which can be investigated, for the most part, through the employment of statistical and normative survey methodology. One of the segments is shown to be susceptible of the application of more rigorous research methodology capable of yielding empirical proof. Since all three segments form integral parts of the field, they need to be fully represented in the information science curriculum. The technologist as well as the humanist can make significant contributions to the growth and development of the information-science field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on Charles Bishop's recently proposed use of "coden" in documentation to identify uniquely and briefly each paper published in scientific periodicals. This coden would consist of a four-letter abbreviation to identify the journal, followed by the volume number, followed by the number of the page on which the paper commences. Some journals that publish more than one volume a year start numbering the volumes afresh at the beginning of each year. If two or more papers commence on the same page. they must be distinguished. The coden proposed by Bishop does not specify the date. The main question for debate is whether knowledge of the year is worth the price of one extra digit.

This article presents information on research on the possibilities of mechanizing indexing. However, simple investigations can be made, requiring no machines, which should also produce some useful results concerning the possibilities of mechanized indexing. This brief paper describes some simple explorations of this character, and makes a few comments on their possible outcome. For several reasons, this paper suggests the trying out of relatively simple possible rules for mechanized indexing. The only virtue of an existing indexing vocabulary in a retrieval system is that it works well.

The article presents information on conferences on documentation. The general theme of the 16th annual convention and labor conference of the German Society for Documentation was "Documentation and Its Users." The Institute of Economic Sciences of the German Academy in Berlin held in June 1964 a seminar on the subject of information and documentation in the field of social sciences. The discussions during UNESCO Meeting on Scientific Translation and Terminology included a proposal for the international coordination of terminological activities.

This article informs that the information requirements can be specified in terms of one or more characteristic features. If the identification and selection of papers, patents, and other records is to be accomplished with the aid of automatic equipment, then such identification and selection must be formalized in terms of well-defined routine operations. The analysis of the subject content of documents is a necessary prerequisite to rendering them amenable to identification by machine searching operations. In conducting such analysis, the significance of the subject content of each document must be carefully considered in the light of its importance and probable usefulness to other workers in the field.

The article discusses low-cost institutional photocopying service. The Library of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed an inexpensive institutional photocopying service, delivering positive prints of documents instead of right negatives. The low service charge and the operating convenience experienced during the first year of its use has assured its permanence. Simplicity of plant, equipment and operation makes the installation of a similar service entirely feasible for the small educational institution and the medium-sized library. Because of the low initial outlay it may be justified as a stand-by service. Sufficiently publicized it can develop into a widely appreciated auxiliary service, contributing to the Library's prestige and improvement in community relations.

A group of attendees and program participants was surveyed after the 1964 meeting of the American Documentation Institute to provide ideas and guidance for future ADI meetings. The responses indicated that attendees view the quality of the technical program as the key to a successful meeting; that a four-day meeting length meets with wide approval; that, if carefully planned, concurrent plenary sessions might be acceptable; that improvements in scheduling are required to permit greater participation in Author Forums; and that conference proceedings greatly enhance the value of the meeting and should be distributed well before the meeting. The many suggestions and criticisms that were offered are being studied in relation to the next regular ADI meeting In 1966. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the use of the "reading log," coden system which the author proposes here, by the individual research scientist. In its simplest form, the reading log would merely list the coden of articles read, with a brief note as to their content and significance. One of the major problems solved by the reading log was the problem of controlling miscellaneous information. With illustrating the actual bibliographic procedure for recording by the use of the reading log, it is argued that the reading log allows the individual research scientist to keep, with a minimum of effort, a record of the articles he reads. He records only the essentials on the assumption that in a year or two he will be able to locate the papers through abstracts or periodic review articles. According to the author the reading log is of greatest value to the individual scientist and is not advocated for bibliographic centers where greater versatility and continuity are required.

The article comment briefly upon the place of conventional photography in the duplication of documentary materials. The photostat process has now been so thoroughly mechanized that it is possible to produce a completed photostat ready for use in seven minutes time. There is at present a modified automatic photostat device being tried experimentally at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will produce copies rapidly at even less cost. One of the interesting new developments in the field of copying devices is that of Thermofax, a product of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. Stenafax, the product of the Times Facsimile Corp., is an adaptation of the Facsimile equipment that has become familiar through use for the transmission of newsphotos and weather maps.

The article presents a list of research papers on subject and linguistic analysis in information science. In the paper "Study of Theories and Models of Information Storage and Retrieval: Report No. 7: Graphs and Algorithms for Term Relations," an algorithm is presented for grouping the terms of a document corpus into genera, and it is shown that the different genera of the graph G = (T, M), where T is the set of index terms and M the reflexive, symmetrical relation of matching, constitute a partition of T. In "All Evaluation of Links and Roles Used in Information Retrieval," links and roles are techniques for modifying a basic coordinate indexing method.

The article focuses on several papers providing information on the application of equipment to library operations. The paper "The Economics of Book Catalog Production: A Study Prepared for Stanford University Libraries and the Council on Library Resources," by R.M. Hayes and R.M. Shoffner was intended to assist Stanford University in the economic and procedural questions involved in deciding what form the catalog for a new undergraduate library should take. It is also expected to assist other libraries in making such a decision.

The article refers to a paper "Class Definition and Code Construction," which is Number VI of the series Machine Literature Searching, in which, the authors employ the algebra of classes and its symbols in a manner which is certainly questionable if not actually wrong. Since most of what is said is fairly clear in spite of the unfortunate use of symbols and the algebra of classes, one does not feel it necessary to bring this fact to the attention of the readers of "American Documentation."

The article presents information on the principles underlying the indexing system. The backbone of the indexing system is provided by codes for individual terms. The construction of these codes has been developed in such a way that the important aspects of the meanings of terms are rendered explicit and thus made available as reference points for defining and conducting searching operations. The establishment of codes based on semantic analysis has been greatly facilitated by preliminary systematization of the terminology.

The article provides information on the bibliographies of documentation. The publications of the American Council of Learned Societies during the last two years have been prepared on an IBM typewriter and lithoprinted with a minimum of expense. The principal purpose of the operation has been to secure dependable figures on costs. "Article Bibliography," is a 3-volume, 4500 page bibliography, listing or summarizing more than 20,000 scientific papers and reports pertaining to the Arctic, and also official documents, books of exploration, and general magazine articles. "Machine Translation," discusses the present state of research on machine translation in the U.S. The present outlook is that fully automatic translation seems out of the question in the near future; it would require storage capacities of trillions of bits of information or the invention of programming techniques that could greatly increase the machine's efficiency by learning, or some combination of these two factors

The article reports on maintenance and reduction of documents. The aim of the article is to present the major problems of maintenance, problems which are inherent in any document collection, problems whose existence alone gives reason to this discussion. The article also enumerates some of the major problems of reduction, and finally, to suggest some possible solution for at least a part of the numerous problems that inevitably accompany work in this field. Maintenance of a collection is concerned primarily with the document in its original form, usually paper, with graphs, supplements, revisions, addenda, changes, and sometimes a multitude of after thoughts.

Both the users and processers of information-- particularly in the realm of science and technology--have long been aware of the fact that the information in a patent, paper or similar document will be characterized by a variety of features, such as various entities (substances, devices, apparatus, etc.), their attributes, one or more processes or interactions, attendant circumstances and the results of interaction. The multidimensional nature of information has been the basis for successful application of sorting devices permitting information to be selected on the basis of any one feature or combination of features. (1) Experiments with newly developed IBM equipment, (2) have demonstrated that grouping concepts into arrays sometimes called abstraction ladders is a convenient method for making generic terminology available as a basis for conducting searches. The present paper outlines a punching system which would permit abstraction ladders to be coded for handsorted punched cards. The punching system is undergoing test at the present time. The results of these tests will be reported subsequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is pointed out that if information science is to be considered a "true" science similar to physics or chemistry then it must have a set of concepts and analytical expressions which apply to the flow of information in a general way. Such expressions should be relatively independent of the particular context or application under consideration. Definitions of a rigorous nature for the fundamental quantities involved must be established. These must have general applicability and must be related to other known and measurable quantities. It is desirable also that they be capable of quantification. In several previous papers, the author and a colleague have described a model of a generalized information system which has wide, and perhaps universal applicability. This paper elaborates on this model and indicates the range of its applicability. Several fundamental quantities are defined specifically in a way which allows for quantification. It is pointed out in this paper that this model can be the basis for the development of a "true" science of information with all of the necessary requirements for a science. By the use of this model and the definition of a "true" science, the goals and requirements for a curriculum in information science are thus established. Various applications of information science must then exist in much the same way that many applications of physics exist. In the latter case, the applications usually give rise to various branches of engineering. In the case of information science, one of the applications is librarianship-although many others exist as well. Some of these are referred to in the paper. In particular, science information as a subset of information science is discussed. Within this context, information is defined as data of value in decision making. Quantitative measures of information can be obtained by relating information to specific observable actions which can be measured physically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disagreements about the relevance of documents to retrieval requests occur because relevance judges differently interpret requests or documents. Requests may be differently interpreted because they are unclear. Well-known types of request obscurity are reviewed. Less well known is that a request may be unclear because its form-"documents about subject S," "documents answering question Q," etc.-is unclear. Explications are developed of the meanings of the request forms just given and several others. A request of any of the forms discussed is interpreted to be for documents which support statements of a specified kind in a specified way. For example, an "about S' request requires documents supporting statements which contain expression S (though several qualifications are needed); a "question Q" request requires documents which support answers to Q. Examples are given which suggest that some, perhaps all, "about S" requests are unclear. Some ways of formulating clear question requests are given. Various ways in which documents may support statements are distinguished. These depend on such factors as parts of a document used, inference strength, and background knowledge permitted. Some possibly clear support specifications are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several research papers which focus on characteristics of information resources. The paper "Documentation and Dissemination of Research and Development Results" deals with federal scientific and technical information programs, their efforts to achieve efficacy and timeliness, their present scope, prevailing practices, access to and utilization of foreign information, problems that face them, and proposals for dealing with them. Another paper is "Some Prerequisites to Cooperative Cataloging." There is an urgent need for a co-operative cataloguing centre to process current non-American materials. Two alternatives have been suggested: centralized cataloguing, in which libraries would forward acquisitions to the centre for cataloguing; and co-ordinated cataloguing, whereby the centre would act as a clearing-house receiving and distributing requests for cataloguing to be performed by the library first acquiring a given item.

The article presents information on several research papers on documentation. The paper "Manpower for Technical Information Work" presents the findings and conclusions of a pilot study of the functions and qualifications of technical information support personnel in the communications equipment industry. Another paper is "Swimming Against the Flood of Literature," by P.L. Broadhurst. The coverage of all the literature of a given science by one abstract journal and the formation of large computer-searched central stores of information are ideas that are unlikely to be implemented on a large scale in our lifetime.

The Montgomery-Swanson study of Index Medicus heading-title correlations is discussed. Some presently unanswered questions relevant to practical use of their automatic indexing technique are indicated. Contrasted with the 86% heading-title correlation figure which they found for Index Medicus are the following ranges (based on small samples); Index-Handbook of Cardiovascular Agents: 19-45%. Merck Sharp and Dohme Retrieval System: 40-68%; NIH Research Grants Index: 13-39 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a bibliography related to information science that appeared in the 1963 issue of the journal "American Documentation." It includes author and corporate source index, documentation, general reference works and sources of information. Some of the documentations include: "Concerning the Probability That a Given Paper Will Be Cited," by M.M. Kessler and F.E. Heart; "Action Plan for Improved Dissemination of Engineering Information," by Eugene Wall; "The Critical Problem of Biological Information," by B. Glass.

The article presents information on the process of scientific documentation and the significance of it in research works. Much of the literature on scientific documentation is concerned with machines, machine methods and mechanized systems for the storage and retrieval of pertinent information. Conventional indexes, on the whole, act primarily as guides to the literature. They classify articles according to subject matter and tell the user where to find the original document, which contains the sought-after information. Informative abstracts, on the other hand, such as those appearing in Chemical Abstracts and Biological Abstracts can, if well done, act as a short cut through the literature.

The article presents information on coordinate indexing. There are many facets to information retrieval. One of these is the scope which any particular information system is expected to encompass. Several years ago, the Technical Department of the Titanium Division of the National Lead Co. realized the need for more efficient methods of retrieving internal information. The index schedules were organized into a classification system based on Colon principles. The completed classification was coded, using combinations of capital and small letters, and Arabic numerals, to obtain maximum flexibility.

The article presents information on "International Conference on Scientific Information. The Conference, co-sponsored by ADI, would be held in Washington D.C., on November 16-21, 1958. Included in the proposals submitted to date are outlines of papers concerning: new or unpublished research on systems, equipment, and theory; the design of experimental methods for determining scientists' needs for information retrieval services at all levels of sophistication; means for evaluating and comparing the adequacy of existing and proposed systems and services; and the distribution of responsibility for research in this field among governments, universities, industry and the professional societies.

This article focuses on information related to international conference on scientific information. The National Science Foundation, the American Documentation Institute, and the National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council are sponsoring an International Conference on Scientific Information to be held in Washington, D.C., early in November of 1958. There has been a great deal of comment about the increasing difficulties in scientific communication arising from the increasing tempo of research activity and the resulting flood of scientific publications.

The article focuses on several case studies of mechanized systems of documentation. The paper "IBM 1401 Computer Produced and Maintained Weapon Data Subject Authority Document," by James H. Kennedy describes a rapid print-out method for updating a constantly changing authority file. Economical even if more than ten original copies are made. Checking headings, keypunching and editing tapes are performed by humans but card and printed catalog production is by machine. The paper "Computer Search of the U.S. Chemical Patent Literature," by Paul W. Howerton appeared in the 1963 issue of the journal " Automation and Scientific Communication."

The article presents a table of contents for the January 1962 issue of the journal "American Documentation." The article presents the list of contributors to the ADI State of the Art Symposium. Some of the topics included in the journal are "Methods of Organizing Information for Searching," by Saul Herner, "Panel Discussion of Mr. Herner's Paper," "11 State of the Art of Published Indexes," by John Mahkus. Some of the contributors are Saul Herner, Dr. Harriet Geer, Dake Gull and Paul Kliengbiel.

The various operational characteristics defined in this paper provide a basis for quantitative evaluation of the performance of an information retrieval system. Such evaluation is essential in guiding the design of a documentation system so that it may achieve an optimum margin of benefits provided over costs incurred. Insight gained by consideration of operational characteristics is particularly helpful in making decisions with regard to a wide range of technical questions that are encountered in designing documentation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is more concerned with principles and problems than with actual systems of classification and subject analysis in building documentation. It has become a very complicated field branching out into a variety of allied sciences and is closely related to fundamental economic and social factors of general development. The foremost prerequisite of such a discipline is a technique of classification and subject analysis which is capable of world-wide application to what we have come to consider under the term of building documentation. The article discusses the three fundamentally different techniques to process literature by subjects, namely: classification, subject indexing, and coding for mechanical selection.

This article discusses several papers on library science and documentation. The paper "Facsimile for Federal Libraries," by Scott Adams, published in the June 1953 issue of the journal "Special Libraries," discusses the facsimile equipment for use by the AEC, developed by RCA. The purpose of the paper "The Communication of Information (An Historical Review)," by Cherry E. Colin is to illustrate the early historical origins of theoretical work in the field Of communication, but with little use of mathematical notation, and to show the relationships between the diverse interpretations of the word "communication."

The article presents some shorter communications, news and technical notes related to the field of documentation in the U.S. The American Documentation Institute, one of the pioneers in the application of microfilm to the needs of research, has deposited negatives of the following journals in the Photoduplication Service of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. University Microfilms Inc. has announced that Congressional hearings and reports will be photographed during 1952, as the first in a series of the U.S. public documents projected by this producer. Some 200 English literary periodicals of the 17th, I8th, and 19th centuries are being produced by University Microfilms at a subscription cost of $500. for approximately 100,000 pages annually until the series is completed.

In this article the author remarks states that motion pictures are often treated as if they had been admitted into the record family by some accident. They do not fall properly into place in any conventional classification scheme. The accepted guidelines and ground-terms applicable to orthodox record materials and in records administration programs cannot be adapted to them without radical modification. There are some valuable papers concerning some technical aspects of motion picture storage and preservation, and a piece or two which deal with the characteristics of motion picture records from the standpoint of the researcher in history.

The article presents a collection of bibliographical notes on and abstracts of books and articles pertaining to various aspects of the organization of information. These notes are compiled cooperatively by the Committee on Organization of Information of the American Documentation Institute. Research paper "Giant Brains or Machines that Think," by Edmund C. Berkeley, reports that a mechanical brain is a machine that handles information, transfers information automatically from one part of the machine to the other, and has a flexible control over the sequence of its operations.

The article presents some pieces of news related to documentation. One piece of news informs that out-of-print material can be reprinted as a business proposition only if sufficient demand exists. Another piece of news informs that documentation industry firm Rcadex Microprint Corp. has established its plant in Chester, Vermont and maintains an office at 1 Madison Avenue, New York City. Work is continuing on the production of the British Sessional Papers and other titles which will shortly be announced.

This paper presents a new generalized model for information transfer that has at its heart a machine- readable record. The model points out how the core machine-readable record makes possible interfacing computer typesetting with advanced information technology, the interfacing of primary with secondary publications, and the interfacing of data with document information systems. The model also illustrates how modular information transfer systems can be incrementally enlarged. IMPRINT (IMbricated PRogram for INformation Transfer) is one system based on this modular imbricated (overlapping) model. Some of the modules in IMPRINT, which have been developed by Cognitive Systems Incorporated, are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighty-two documents and 30 questions, in documentation and related areas, were compared to find answer-providing documents (documents from which answers to questions can be inferred). Two judges (documentation experts) made comparisons independently. They discussed their disagreements, attempting to resolve them. In each case the positive judge (who had independently judged a document answer-providing) was first asked to indicate what answer he inferred, and from what document passage(s). The further discussion depended on the details of each case. There were 32 independent agreements on positive judgments. There were 48 disagreements between independent judgments, all resolved by discussion. Thirty-four resolutions were agreements on positive judgments, accomplished by pointing out over-looked passages, unnoticed connections, or alternative meanings. Fourteen resolutions were agreements on negative judgments, accomplished by pointing out document misinterpretations, the challenged positive judge being unable to describe an inference and joint work not finding one, or agreement that both judges lacked sufficient background knowledge. In general, the resolution procedures used will resolve a disagreement about whether a document is answer-providing or reduce it to a familiar kind of scientific disagreement (about a passage's meaning, a statement's correctness, or an inference's correctness). This seems better than treating relevance judgements as subjective and not open to rational discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical information centers have been established in recent years to cope with the "information explosion" problem which confronts the scientific community. These operations are highly analogous to a typical manufacturing firm with functions such as purchasing, production, service, finance, administration, and distribution. Management of a center encounters cost information requirements similar to those found in other enterprises for planning, control, and decision-making purposes. Yet, research indicates that few tangible cost-accounting applications have been attempted in information centers. The purpose of this paper is to describe a research project conducted at a technical information center to test the hypothesis that: A theoretically-sound managerial cost-accounting system con be designed to meet the specific characteristics of a technical information center by revising and innovating systems utilized by other enterprises. A computerized cost system was developed and operated for a three-month period to test this hypothesis. The results of the study indicate that effective managerial cost accounting is possible for o technical information center. Relevant cost information was generated periodically to measure the operating performance of the center's production process. A summary of the data that were reported regularly to management is presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(I) Better understanding of subject document retrieval might result if different functions of subject document retrieval systems are studied separately. This paper is concerned with retrieval of documents, in response to a question, from which answers to that question can be inferred ("answer-providing documents"). "Answer can be inferred from document" has many possible meanings, one of which must be selected (an "inference specification"). Inasmuch as scientists in a field sometimes disagree about the correctness of inferences, have somewhat different background knowledge, etc., any inference specification can only approximate scientific inference practices. Two sources of systematic knowledge of document-statement inference practices in a scientific field are described. (II) If a content word occurs in a question, then it occurs in any answer to that question (with some apparently tractable exceptions). An indexing procedure based on that fact is described which would permit retrieval of all answer-providing documents for a question. However, because the indexing is "nonrelational," it could cause false retrievals as well. Various ways of dealing with such false retrievals are briefly indicated, and a study is sketched that would provide data for helping selection among them. Two special points concerning indexing for retrieval of answer-providing documents are discussed separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous applications of simulation to information storage and retrieval systems (ISRS) have been overly restrictive in their scope and have failed to consider the environment within which such systems operate. This paper considers the ISRS as a subsystem within a larger system which includes the users and the funders ot the retrieval system. The three components form a closed-loop information feedback system in which user response influences both the funding and operation of the ISRS as it attempts to satisfy user needs within a finite budget allocation. Reward-cost theory provides the bask for describing user behavior. An industrial dynamics model has been developed to simulate ISRS/user/funder behavior where a university departmental library is the ISRS component. The results which such an analysis can produce are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A KWIC Cumulative Index to the first 53 years of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America has been produced and distributed to the members of the Society. There are only about 1,000 members of this group. This paper reports the reactions of this group of scientists to the novel index. Temporal variation of the preference is studied both as a simple Markov process and as a birth and death model. The findings are extrapolated to predict the stable level of preference. By the birth and death model, about 75% of the respondents would eventually prefer the KWIC index over the traditional subject index. Authors provided a large percentage of the respondents so they were treated separately. About 80% of the authors would eventually prefer the KWIC index, assuming no change in the environment. The simple Markov process gave slightly lower values. Because of the rapid change in information retrieval techniques, these results may not remain valid very long, nor for groups in different environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines and describes the KWIC (keyword in context) index concept, providing a history of the concept and of its literature. It discusses variations of the index, such as the Bell Telephone Index, KWOC indexes, and the WADEX. The paper discusses improvements and variations to the KWIC index, such as manipulation of the index line, variations of the code, addition of classification information, combination of author index and title index, and improvements of the type face. It also discusses improvements to the preparation of the KWIC indexes, such as improvement of titles and use of a thesaurus, and discusses improvement of the use of the KWIC index. The paper discusses the usage of the KWIC index and comments on the future of KWIC indexes and of the KWIC concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite excessive glamorizing of the role of computers in publishing, truly economical applications are beginning to emerge. Many types of directories, indexes, cumulated bibliographies, and cumulated library book catalogs can today be put through a computer in less time and at less cost than for conventional typesetting. Examples of successful applications are given, after taking up one by one the many system design decisions that must be made in the areas of input hardware, computer hardware, computer software, and output hardware. Major attention is given to the proofreading problem, because line printers are still far from ideal for producing the equivalent of galley proofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]