The introduction of mechanical devices for the processing of scientific information raises the question as to the extent to which machines will be able to assist in the selection, storage, dissemination and retrieval of information. In order to appreciate fully the functions that information processing machines are capable of performing in this area, a number of typical operations are presented and their potential usefulness to the development phase as well as operational phases of information systems is explored. The solution of particular problems is illustrated by way of examples based on the availability of scientific literature in machine-readable form. The examples cover the compilation of word lists, establishment of word relationships, the preparation of word patterns for retrieval and the compilation of dictionaries and thesauri. Some of the results of Information Retrieval Research at the IBM Research Center are presented in the form of machine print-outs such as the keyword-in-context index for bibliographies, the auto-abstract, the word pair matrix, derived code words, and the statistical analysis of a document.
By: H. P. Luhn
Published in: RC101 in 1959
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