Indexing, Indexing, Indexing: Making It Work for Your Library

Morgan, Eric Lease, Computers in Libraries

Indexing should be an integral part of your information services.

The ability to create your own index of electronic texts is an ability frequently under-utilized in Library Land. This is a shame since the creation of your own indexes empowers you to create focused, customizable information services that you would otherwise have to wait for a commercial vendor to provide--maybe. In this column, I'll cover what indexing is and why it should be an integral part Of your information services. Second, I'll describe a number of free, UNIX-based indexing systems: freewais-sf[1], Harvest[2], SWISH-E[3], and ht://Dig[4].

Exactly What Are Indexes and Indexing?

An index is a list of pointers. More specifically, it is an ordered list c>f terms or phrases (denoting authors, titles, or concepts) paired with pointers to content within a set of one or more documents where the terms or phrases are the focus of the content.

According to the history books, indexing has been taking place ever since the creation of the written word. But for all intents and purposes, I don't think widespread indexing existed until Mr. H. W. Wilson started his book-selling efforts from his college dormitory in the early part of this century.[5] Only in the last half of this century have we seen the formal creation of an indexing profession and publications describing it.

You are probably familiar with many of the principles of indexing since they are very much akin to the principles of cataloging and classification. But unlike …

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Publication information: Article title: Indexing, Indexing, Indexing: Making It Work for Your Library. Contributors: Morgan, Eric Lease - Author. Magazine title: Computers in Libraries. Volume: 18. Issue: 6 Publication date: June 1998. Page number: 30+. © 2008 Information Today, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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