An Explanation of the Relationship between Indexing and Abstracting as Library Services
An Explanation of the Relationship Between Indexing and Abstracting as Library Services
Introduction
It is human nature to prefer short cuts when there are guarantees that they come at no cost.Consequently man has always strived to device means of ensuring a reduction in the time spent carrying out most of his activities.The library in comformity to this, has prided itself in devising procedures of accessing information in as little time as possible.Without these procedures the world of documentation would have been chaotic.They is a quartet of information retrieval processes called cataloging, classification, indexing and abstracting.Indexing and abstracting are concern of this paper
Indexing
Wedgeworth, (1993) defined indexing as a language based system that describes the content of a work resulting in a list of subjects or headings called an index.The indexing process includes not only selecting terms to be indexed, but also qualifying these terms with subentries where appropriate; and editing the index after a first draft is produced to improve its cohesiveness, consistency, accuracy, and usefulness to the reader.
A few of the functions of indexing include:
It is the grouping together information on topics scattered by the arrangements of the document, and organises headings and their modifying subheadings into index entries.
Directing users seeking information under terms not chosen as index headings, to headings that have been chosen using “see references.”
Suggesting to users of a topic to look up related topics also by means of “see also”
Arranging entries into systematic and helpful order.
Identifying and locating potentially relevant information in the document or collection being indexed.
There are various kinds of indexes which are broadly divided into the
Introduction
It is human nature to prefer short cuts when there are guarantees that they come at no cost.Consequently man has always strived to device means of ensuring a reduction in the time spent carrying out most of his activities.The library in comformity to this, has prided itself in devising procedures of accessing information in as little time as possible.Without these procedures the world of documentation would have been chaotic.They is a quartet of information retrieval processes called cataloging, classification, indexing and abstracting.Indexing and abstracting are concern of this paper
Indexing
Wedgeworth, (1993) defined indexing as a language based system that describes the content of a work resulting in a list of subjects or headings called an index.The indexing process includes not only selecting terms to be indexed, but also qualifying these terms with subentries where appropriate; and editing the index after a first draft is produced to improve its cohesiveness, consistency, accuracy, and usefulness to the reader.
A few of the functions of indexing include:
It is the grouping together information on topics scattered by the arrangements of the document, and organises headings and their modifying subheadings into index entries.
Directing users seeking information under terms not chosen as index headings, to headings that have been chosen using “see references.”
Suggesting to users of a topic to look up related topics also by means of “see also”
Arranging entries into systematic and helpful order.
Identifying and locating potentially relevant information in the document or collection being indexed.
There are various kinds of indexes which are broadly divided into the
References: Wedgeworth, R. (1993) World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services.U.S.A.: American Library Association. Meadow, Charles T. (1967) The Analysis of Information Systems: a Programmers’s Information Retrieval. NewYork. O’Connor, B. C.(1996) Exploration in Indexing and Abstracting: Point, Virtue and Power.U.S.A.:Libraries Unlimited Inc.Pp 1 - 15 Chrisp, P. and Toale,K. (2008) Impact Assessment. www.thepublicationplan.com (01/ 04/ 2012) Fidel, Raya (1986) The Effect of Abstracting Guidelines on Retrieval Performance of Free-text Searching.Information Processing and Management. vol 22:4, pp 309 - 316. Bello, S. O. (2007) Elements Of Indexing and Abstracting. Unpublished Lecture Notes