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A mathematical model is presented which explains the observed exponential growth rates of citations and references in a scientific discipline. The independent variables are the growth rate of the number of articles published and the decay rate of citation of old literature. It is shown how the parameters of the model can be estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

The section of "The Production of Woven Fabrics" focuses on the production management of woven fabrics in the textile industry discussed in various papers published in the previous sections. The systems for collection and processing of data is stated to have become increasingly refined with the development of computer technology. In their papers, researchers Z. Heczko and A. Ackermann have described the applications for monitoring production in a weaving department. In their papers, researchers Z. Heczko and A. Ackermann have described the applications for monitoring production in a weaving department. In his research paper, H.A. Cann discusses a number of monitoring systems that utilizes small computers.

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 reports that for the first time in history there is now available the technology to produce and publish books on demand and at a reasonable price. With the introduction of the Xerox and its successful application as a practical book-printing machine, there is once again the old excitement of new frontiers and of a solution, at last, to old unsolvable problems--a solution built on all the earlier basic thinking about microfilm. Out-of-print books, often so very difficult to obtain, can now be made on demand. Original manuscripts can be published with the only investment being the cost of a microfilm negative.

This article presents information about the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago, which was organized in July 1950. The conference was based on the subject of bibliographic organization. The program consisted of the presentation of fourteen papers presented over a period of six days. The primary objective of the conference was not to present a survey of existing facilities but rather to bring together a wide variety of points of view concerning the problems of bibliographic organization, and thereby to try to bring about an understanding, if not a consensus of opinion regarding basic problems which must be solved before an effective organization of the world of recorded materials can be developed.

The conventional method of preparing SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) profiles often necessitates detailed interview sessions between the client and one or more information scientists. This research shows that by submitting samples of the client's recent professional reading material to automatic text analysis, SDI profiles can be prepared that result in significantly higher initial recall scores than do those prepared by conventional techniques; relevance scores are not significantly different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the purpose of this paper to explore the use of extracts by reporting the results of a survey of the current acceptability and use of extracts, by a literature review and by suggesting guidelines for selecting extract material. The survey shows that extracts are currently being used in information services, especially for current awareness. Most consider extracting a time-saver. The methods for selecting material from a document are not well defined. A search of the literature produced only thirteen documents which deal with manually produced extracts. As reported in the literature, materials extracted include the author summaries, first and/or last paragraphs, selected sentences, the first page, and material selected by subject specialists from the entire text. The value of extracts as measured by whether they lead the user to relevant documents was experimentally demonstrated. The purpose of the guidelines is to help the librarian and information specialist produce an informative extract. There was no substantial evidence that extracting is less costly than abstracting. The main criteria considers whether to spend the money to resay what the author has said or get a better understanding of the paper and use the author's words to describe it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

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]

The article presents a list of research papers on application of computers to classification, indexing, and text processing. In the paper "Structure Matching in Information Processing," a new technique for comparing structured data is presented. In particular, an algorithm is developed which makes possible the efficient comparison of any two structures that can be represented by a graph. The study "Common Vocabulary Approaches for Government Scientific and Technical Information Systems," which takes a broader look into the vocabulary problem, was given added impetus by the more recent interest of the Committee on Scientific Information of the Federal Council for Science and Technology.

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 discusses books and papers providing information on information storage and retrieval system. Some of the books and papers listed are "Avtomaticheskaia informatsionnaia sistema otyskaniia klinicheskogo pretsedenta," by I.I. Artobolevskii, A.A. Vishnevskii and M. L. Bykhovskii, the paper "ASTM Picks Termatrex for X-ray File," published in the journal "Chemical Engineering News," the paper "Punched-Card Medical Records: One Method," published in the "Journal of Occupational Medicine," and the paper "Mechanization and Subject Headings," published in the journal "Library Resources and Technical Services."

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 presents a list of reports on proposed library facilities. In the paper "Machine Processing in a Special Library," the range of application of EAM and EDP techniques to the technical operations and service mission of the special library is typified by several summaries. In "Establishment of a Coordinate Indexing Retrieval System for the Air Force Materials Laboratory," a coordinate indexing system for a library containing over 10,000 documents has been established. This report discusses in detail the indexing of documents using deep indexing with links and roles.

This paper defines a hash coding model for non-unique search keys and derives the expected number of accesses needed to retrieve all desired records from a computer storage device. The assumption that the records are stored on the basis of a non-unique key is often realized in information retrieval environments. The model assumes that the hashing algorithm and, should a collision occur, the skipping algorithm, both distribute the records randomly in memory. The results of this analysis are compared with those from a simulation in which the randomness criterion is not strictly met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with an overview of the way the ASIS file management exercise was approached using three of the divisions of UL/1. These were establishment, update, and interrogation in that order. After the 65-record file was established via a necessary data conversion, it was updated in one run. Finally, three of the four required listings and all queries were handled in one run of the interrogation division. Examples are included of how updates, listings, and queries are specified in UL/1. The conclusion discusses shortcomings in UL/1 which the exercise revealed and mentions UL/1 capability not called for in the exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The article presents abstracts of operations research. They include "Origins of Linear Programming," by George B. Dantzig, "Linear Programming— A Progress Report on an Application in the Forest Products Industry," by Bayard Wyne, Jr., "Origins and Development of PERT and CPM.," by John H. Roseboom, "Evaluation of a Large-Scale Information Retrieval System," by L. Martin Ernst, and "Reliability Science and Technology in Military and Industrial Contexts," by David S. Stoller.

(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]

Although a large number of Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Systems have been planned, implemented, and tested over the past few years, insufficient attention has been given to the collection and interpretation of important data needed for evaluation. We describe some of the defects common to almost all of the reported systems, single out one recent report for detailed discussion and argue in favor of collection and correct interpretation of data on one important and frequently overlooked evaluation factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scale of activity in Information Science and Retrieval, unique in the twentieth century, is plotted by surveying three areas of impingement between professional people and information systems. The first testimony cites the momentum in a major scientific society with respect to the reorganization and automation of publication and retrieval. The second projects the state of the art in the time-sharing of computer programs and files to the degree that the exchange of information is becoming a completely economic and critical tool for education, with man-machine interfaces provided for students and professors alike. The third deals with the rapid progress in the realization of man-interface conversation in nearly natural English format, made possible by sophisticated programs and hardware. The prognostication of the impact of these increasing capabilities on the deepest concerns and activities of mankind is sketched. The immediate availability throughout the world of all information files will engender continual review and evaluation in the scientific spirit that welcomes reexamination of any data without fear. In liberal education, there must be a responsibility to prepare minds for this regimen in the world of scholarship of the 1970's, but there must be a concomitant exhilaration of the young human spirit in the seeking of the total view and of a value system for the individuality in the universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of research papers on design, testing, and evaluation of information systems. "The Evaluation of Automatic Retrieval Procedures: Selected Test Results Using the SMART System" report deals with the evaluation of a variety of automatic indexing and retrieval procedures incorporated into the SMART automatic document retrieval system. The research study "Applications of Serial and Parallel File Structures to Command and Control Systems" was undertaken to determine if the introduction of redundant files can reduce search time when serial outputs are required.

Presents an introduction to the July 1970 issue of the "Journal of the American Society for Information Science."

The article discusses the subject of storage problems and micro-reproduction. The subject here has been taken to relate to the general problem of warehousing papers, books, and other materials that are the physical media of documentation. This problem in turn largely resolves itself into one of cost accounting. In the field of governmental operations micro-reproduction has been peddled from the beginning mainly as a means of achieving economy through saving of space. The archival profession as a whole has undercut micro-reproduction rather than promoted it, meeting the competition of improving technology with such administrative innovations as the scheduling of records for disposal, the development of low-cost intermediate depositories for records, and the infiltration of its initiates closer to the sources from which endless streams of records flow.

The article presents a list of research papers on some proposed facilities other information centers related to information science. "A Retrieval System for Searching Defense Documentation Center Magnetic Tape Files," states that a document retrieval system was developed with the cooperation of the Defense Documentation Center. This report describes the logic of the computer program developed, and provides instructions for use of the program. "USAF Mechanical Properties Data Center," cover the continued operation of the U.S.A.F. Mechanical Properties Data Center, including the expansion of data files, capabilities, and data output.