Using his Information Scientist pseudonym of Icarus, Alan Gilchrist once called the Aslib Co‐ordinate Indexing Group (CIG) (now Aslib Informatics Group) a bunch of…
Abstract
Using his Information Scientist pseudonym of Icarus, Alan Gilchrist once called the Aslib Co‐ordinate Indexing Group (CIG) (now Aslib Informatics Group) a bunch of free‐thinkers—the hippy fringe of the information profession. As the leading light of this Group (Leo Jolley was its Chairman from its formal inception in 1970 until his death on Christmas Day 1976) one might have expected him to epitomize these alleged qualities, but this was not so. Leo was neither long‐haired, figuratively or otherwise, nor was he a particularly free‐thinker. His work relating to information retrieval tended to be highly formalized: for a time he was unjusdy criticized for his attempt to rigorously define the fundamental nature of feature card systems. Later he had to suffer similar criticism from the present writer when he attempted to define and standardize the vocabulary relating to co‐ordinate indexing and thesaurus construction. Leo was a highly individual thinker, however, and he certainly existed at the fringe of the information profession. His contacts with the profession appear to have been limited to the CIG and to the Classification Research Group. He was neither a member of the Institute of Information Scientists nor of the Library Association, and was affronted if accused of being a librarian. Thus, he formed a part of that limited band who have contributed much to the profession without really being a part of it. This must be qualified, however, in that he had established a company (J. L. Jolley and Partners) which operated a range of services from consultancy to punching holes in feature cards.
Knowledge can be created by drawing inferences from what is already known. Often some of the requisite information is lacking and has to be gathered by whatever research…
Abstract
Knowledge can be created by drawing inferences from what is already known. Often some of the requisite information is lacking and has to be gathered by whatever research techniques are appropriate, e.g. experiments, surveys etc. Even if the information has all been published already, unless it is retrieved no inferences will be drawn from it and consequently there will exist some knowledge that is implicit in the literature and yet is not known by anyone. This ‘undiscovered public knowledge’, as it is termed by Swanson, may exist in the following forms: (i) a hidden refutation or qualification of a hypothesis; (ii) an undrawn conclusion from two or more premises; (iii) the cumulative evidence of weak, independent tests; (iv) solutions to analogous problems; (v) hidden correlations between factors. Methods of classification may also play a direct role in the creation of original knowledge. Novel solutions to problems may be discovered by generating different combinations of the basic features of the solutions, as is done in morphological analysis. Alternatively a natural classification may identify gaps in existing knowledge. This paper reviews previous work on producing knowledge by information retrieval or classification and describes techniques by which hidden knowledge may be retrieved, e.g. serendipity in browsing, use of appropriate search strategies and, possibly in the future, methods based on Farradane's relational indexing or artificial intelligence.
I first met punched feature cards in 1956. I was working as an assistant to E. G. Brisch, whose company classified the materials and components used in industry. His method…
Abstract
I first met punched feature cards in 1956. I was working as an assistant to E. G. Brisch, whose company classified the materials and components used in industry. His method brought similar articles together, both notionally in classified codebooks and practically when the classified items were stored in their code number order. The result was an excellent aid to variety reduction, standardization, and stock control. E. G. gave me a good grounding in analytical classification; but his office held other secrets too. One of these was a sort of punched card representing a property or quality, not an object or event as with all other punched cards I had met. On these other cards, notched or slotted for hand‐sorting with needles, or punched and verified in thousands for reading by machine, the holes stood for characteristics possessed by the item concerned. The new cards were different. Since they represented properties, the items possessing these had to be shown by the holes, and so they were. E. G. named them ‘Brisch‐a‐boo’: this I found was his special variant of ‘peek‐a‐boo’, a title by which they are still occasionally known. To stack some of them in exact register with each other is to find, as a set of through holes in numbered positions, the reference numbers of all the items recorded on them which have the qualities concerned.
The fundamental structure which is dealt with in all information handling is the data field—the set of things or items with which we are concerned, together with the set of…
Abstract
The fundamental structure which is dealt with in all information handling is the data field—the set of things or items with which we are concerned, together with the set of qualities or features which make these of interest to us. It is an extremely important, and deceptively simple structure. Since co‐ordinate indexing forms a large part of information handling, we may deduce that its practitioners know a 'good deal about the data field in fact, no matter what they may think about its theory. Indeed, here as elsewhere facts come first and theories toddle after, explaining why we might have expected the behaviour which surprised us. The theoretician seems a professor of glorious hindsight, hoping that what he says will be helpful to people facing the other way.
The term ‘integrative levels’ was introduced by Joseph Needham in 1937. He recognized a series of eight levels. Others have since proposed various different and often longer…
Abstract
The term ‘integrative levels’ was introduced by Joseph Needham in 1937. He recognized a series of eight levels. Others have since proposed various different and often longer series. Now, by the rigorus application of two ad hoc rules or criteria for the discrimination of ‘major integrative levels’, the number of such major levels (on present knowledge) is found to be nine. Short terms are available for designating the members of the different levels. Having performed the formal classification of objects, according to integrative level, several new quantitative generalizations become apparent. For instance, there is now clear evidence of a general long‐term acceleration throughout most of the period of biological and social evolution.
A number of over‐lapping terms have been applied to coding techniques used in association with post‐co‐ordinate indexing. These include subcodes, which can be interpreted as the…
Abstract
A number of over‐lapping terms have been applied to coding techniques used in association with post‐co‐ordinate indexing. These include subcodes, which can be interpreted as the generic term; superimposed, graphic and random coding and Zatocoding, which are nearly synonymous; and partial or derived coding: the last named may be considered as a bridge between the second group (superimposed, etc.) and direct coding techniques. For the sake of consistency, the terms graphic coding and partial coding will be employed wherever possible. The general principles of coding have been adequately reviewed in C. P. Bourne's Methods of Information Handling and have been subjected to detailed analysis in J. L. Jolley's Data Study. Graphic codes have been studied in considerable depth in the above; therefore, a brief introduction will suffice.
Co‐ordinate (sometimes called synthetic) indexing was in use for many years before it gained its present names. It had no name at all: it was simply the way people went about…
Abstract
Co‐ordinate (sometimes called synthetic) indexing was in use for many years before it gained its present names. It had no name at all: it was simply the way people went about answering certain sorts of question. It was used in accountancy, quality control, staff placement, medical record keeping, and municipal housing management—to take examples at random. It consisted, and it still consists, in collecting an appropriate set of items and recording their features in a standard language, usually a code, on suitable data vehicles, usually cards. Each card represented an item, and was marked with coloured tabs, or punched with holes, or clipped around its edges, the tabs or holes or notches showing which features the item possessed. All items possessing any given set of features then became easy to find. One looked—one still looks—for the right set of tabs or notches or holes.
The search for an easily installed, practicable and inexpensive information retrieval system continues unabated. This is reflected in the Aslib Library almost daily by requests…
Abstract
The search for an easily installed, practicable and inexpensive information retrieval system continues unabated. This is reflected in the Aslib Library almost daily by requests for advice on the feasibility of installing this or that system, or for information on what systems are available in Great Britain. Study of the following bibliography, which covers only a narrow selection of information retrieval systems, will reveal that much original thought has been producing concrete results in this country. In fact, one of the earliest references is to a paper given at the twenty‐second Aslib Conference in 1947 by W. E. Batten, in which he describes his development of an ‘aspect’ card system—more often referred to today as ‘Peek‐a‐boo’ or ‘feature’ cards. Mr C. W. Cleverdon's Cranfield project is also adding considerable knowledge on the use of various indexing methods, including Uniterm.
Catalogues of special libraries are primarily finding tools, and not repositories of exemplary cataloguing. Author and name entries, no less than subject entries, should be…
Abstract
Catalogues of special libraries are primarily finding tools, and not repositories of exemplary cataloguing. Author and name entries, no less than subject entries, should be evaluated from the point of view of information retrieval. Multiple entries on unit cards generously used may well be justified not only on grounds of efficiency but also on grounds of economy. Stationery, duplicating, and space for extra cards are often cheaper than man‐hours spent in thinking, argument, and fruitless searches. Entries for periodical articles should not be separated from the main catalogue. Series entries in numerical order should include reasons for any deliberately excluded items. A study is made of two possible inquiries and of how far author and name entries may usefully be made for ‘sponsors’ as well as authors of publications. The use of agreed abbreviations is advocated as an economy. Biographee entries should be made in the author catalogue for studies of the work of specialist organizations. Use of book‐reviews for finding critiques of works of such organizations is suggested. Case studies of actual searches should form the basis in compiling a cataloguing code for special libraries.
The last CRG Bulletin, no. 7, dealt only with the practical application of four faceted special classifications.