The document discusses the history and development of indexing from Sumerian record keeping in 3000 BC to current web indexing. It provides definitions and guidelines related to indexing, including defining key terms like index, indexer, and indexing language. Various standards and awards related to indexing excellence are also mentioned.

1. Prepared by:
Daryl L. Superio
Central Philippine University
Iloilo City, Philippines

2.  Sumer, 3000 B.C.- where the first systematic
organization of written records was found
 2000 B.C., China & India- when record
keeping became part of the society
◦ an orderly society is parallel to the orderly record of
what has occurred
◦ laws had been passed requiring that all business
transactions be recorded and authorized
 900 A.D.- when encyclopedia was arranged in
alphabetical order

3.  early indexes were concordance indexes, were
limited to personal names or were indexes to the
occurrence of words on text
 marginal summaries were around as early as the
9th century
 indexes took a major step forward with the
development of codex
 blank pages binding at the back of the book were
utilized to be written references
◦ known as do-it-yourself indexes
◦ indexes were usually at the front of the book, lifted
verbatim from the text, simple but not easy to use

4.  1850s- W.F. Poole published an index that
cut across many journals
◦ the beginning of a single publication indexing
numerous issues of many journals
 1900- H.W. Wilson, first published the
Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
◦ notable for the emphasis it placed on subject
access and cross-referencing
◦ each periodicals were indexed under its author and
its specific subject

5.  19th Century- when Paul Otlet and Henri La
Fontaine founded the International Institute
of Bibliography
◦ one of the purpose was to improve indexing
approaches to scholarly literature
◦ title-word indexing was proposed, which led to
keyword and free indexing
 book indexing continued to improve; indexes
began to have subdivisions of terms, and
slowly cross-references began to appear

6.  1950s- when computers were utilized in
indexing and abstracting
◦ Hans Peter Luhn, of IBM introduced a mechanized form
of derived title-word indexing schemes
 1960s- brought the third generation computers,
indexes and abstracts began to publish with
computers using batch processing methods
 1990s- when keyword searching of computer-
stored indexes had been perfected
 20th Century- greater progress in the
development of indexing methods; indexes to
individual work, through indexes to several
volumes, to cooperative and massive indexes and
currently, the web indexes

7.  Index
◦ a systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable
users to locate information in a document
◦ an alphabetically arranged list of headings consisting of
the personal names, places, and subjects treated in a
written work, with page numbers to refer the reader to
the point in the text at which information pertaining to
the heading is found
 in single-volume works of reference and nonfiction, any
indexes appear at the end of the back matter
 in a multivolume work, they are found at the end of the last
volume
 in very large multivolume reference works, the last volume
may be devoted entirely to indexes

8.  index also refers to:
 an open-end finding guide to the literature of an
academic field or discipline
 ex. Philosopher's Index
 works of a specific literary form
 ex. Biography Index
 published in a specific format
 ex. Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
 analyzed contents of a serial publication
 ex. New York Times Index

9.  Indexing
◦ the operation of creating an index for information
retrieval
◦ the process of:
 compiling one or more indexes for a single
publication, such as a monograph or multivolume
reference work,
 adding entries for new documents to an open-end
index covering a particular publication format
(example: newspapers), works of a specific literary
form (biography, book reviews, etc.), or the literature
of an academic field, discipline, or group of
disciplines.

10.  Indexer
◦ a person who does indexing
 Indexable matter
◦ the portions of documents that are actually analyzed and
indexed
 Indexing language
◦ in a broad sense, any vocabulary, including uncontrolled
vocabulary, used for indexing and the rules of syntax for
its application
◦ in a narrower sense, a controlled vocabulary or
classification system and the rules of syntax for its
application

11.  minimize the time and effort in finding information and
maximize the searching success of users
 identify potentially relevant information in the document
or collection being indexed
 analyze concepts treated in a document to produce
appropriate index headings based on the indexing
language assigned
 indicate relationship among terms
 group together related topics scattered due to the
arrangement used in a document or collection
 direct the users seeking information under terms not
chosen as index headings to headings that have been
chosen, by means of See reference
 suggest related topics by means of see also reference
 tools for current awareness services

12.  Anderson, James D. 1997. NISO-TR02, Guidelines
for indexes and related information retrieval
devices.
◦ provides guidelines for the content, organization, and
presentation of indexes used for the retrieval of
documents and parts of documents
◦ deals with the principles of indexing, regardless of the
type of material indexed, the indexing method used
(intellectual analysis, machine algorithm, or both), the
medium of the index, or the method of presentation for
searching
◦ it emphasizes three processes essential for all indexes:
comprehensive design, vocabulary management, and the
provision of syntax

13.  Wellisch, Hans 1999. NISO-TR03, Guidelines for
alphabetical arrangement of letters and sorting of
numerals and other symbols.
◦ provides rules for the alphabetical arrangement of
headings in lists of all kinds, such as bibliographies,
indexes, dictionaries, directories, inventories, etc.
◦ it also covers the sorting of Arabic or Roman numbers,
and other symbols
◦ it consists of seven rules that cover problems which may
arise in alphanumeric arrangement of headings
◦ is based on the traditional order of letters in the English
alphabet and that of numerals in ascending arithmetical
order

14.  ISO 999:1996, Information and documentation—
guidelines for the content, organization and
presentation of indexes
◦ gives guidelines for the content, arrangement and
presentation of indexes to books, periodicals, reports,
patent documents and other written documents, also to
non-print materials, such as electronic documents, films,
sound and video recordings.
◦ concerned with basic indexing principles and practice
rather than with the detailed procedures of indexing that
vary according to type of matter indexed and the users for
whom the index is intended
◦ covers the choice, form and arrangement of headings and
subheadings used in index entries once the subjects to be
indexed have been determined

15.  ISO 25964-1: 2011 Information and documentation –
Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies –
Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval
◦ gives recommendations for the development and maintenance
of thesauri intended for information retrieval applications
◦ applicable to vocabularies used for retrieving information about
all types of information resources, irrespective of the media
used (text, sound, still or moving image, physical object or
multimedia) including knowledge bases and portals,
bibliographic databases, text, museum or multimedia
collections, and the items within them
◦ provides a data model and recommended format for the import
and export of thesaurus data
◦ applicable to monolingual and multilingual thesauri
◦ not applicable to the preparation of back-of-the-book indexes,
although many of its recommendations could be useful for that
purpose
◦ not applicable to the databases or software used directly in
search or indexing applications, but does anticipate the needs
of such applications among its recommendations for thesaurus
management

16.  ASI/H.W. Wilson Award
◦ was established in 1978 to honor excellence in
indexing of an English language monograph or
other non-serial work published in the United
States during the previous calendar year
◦ its purpose is two-fold:
 for indexers, to provide and publicize models of
excellence in indexing;
 for publishers, to encourage greater recognition of the
importance of quality in book indexing.

17.  The Theodore C. Hines Award or Hines Award
◦ was established in 1993 to honor those members
who have provided exceptional service to American
Society for Indexers.
◦ ASI’s highest honor to its own, and was named for
Ted Hines, who played a large part in the
establishment of the Society

18.  Web Indexing Awards
 to encourage high quality web site indexes and to
promote the web indexing work of professional
indexers, the Web & Electronic Indexing Special
Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing
awards a deserving indexer the annual Web &
Electronic Indexing SIG Award for excellence in web
site indexing

19.  Indexes by type of object referred to
a. authors: all types of document creators such as
writers, composers, illustrators, translators,
editors, choreographers, artists, sculptors,
painters, inventors
b. subjects (topics or features): topics treated in
documents and/ or features of documentary units
(for example, genre, format, methodological
approach). Separate indexes are often devoted to
special types of topics such as persons, places, or
corporate bodies; features, such as genres (for
example, poetry, drama); or notations, such as
International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN).

20.  Indexes by type of term used for headings
a. names: proper nouns, such as names of persons,
places, corporate bodies.
b. numbers or notations: numerical or coded
designations, such as classification notation,
patent number, ISBN, date.
c. words and phrases: common words and phrases
(as opposed to names or proper nouns).

21.  Indexes by type or extent of indexable matter
on which an index is based
a. full text of document
b. abstracts
c. titles only
d. first lines only (for example, first lines of poems)
e. citations(reference citations to other documents

22.  Indexes by arrangement of entries
a. alphabetical or alphanumeric
b. classified: headings arranged on the basis of relations
among concepts represented by headings, for
example, hierarchy, inclusion, chronology, or other
association. Classified indexes are often based on
existing classification schemes, such as the Dewey
Decimal Classification.
c. alphabetico-classed: broad headings arranged
alphabetically. Narrower headings are grouped under
broad headings and arranged alphanumerically or
relationally on the basis of hierarchy, inclusion,
chronology, or other association.

23.  Indexes by method of document analysis
a. human intellectual analysis and identification of
topics and concepts expressed and/ or features
manifested
b. computer algorithms designed to identify useful
terms, phrases, or features
c. combination of computer-based and human
analysis.

24.  Indexes by method of term selection
a. assignment of terms to represent topics and
features (whether or not the term is in the
documentary unit being indexed)
b. extraction of terms from the documentary unit
c. a combination of assignment and extraction
methods

25.  Indexes by method of term coordination
a. pre-coordinate combination: such as subject
heading indexes, string indexes, chain indexes,
keyword indexes (including KWIC, KWOC, KWAC
indexes), rotated, and permuted indexes
b. post-coordinate combination: includes the use of
Boolean operators, proximity measures, and the
combination of weighted terms.

26.  Indexes by type, periodicity, format, genre, or
medium of document(s) being indexed
◦ Examples are: books, monographs, periodicals,
serials, poetry, fiction, short stories, films, videos,
illustrations, pictures, paintings, artifacts, software,
computer readable texts, maps, and sound
recordings
 Indexes by medium of index
a. printed or written
b. microform
c. electronic media, including online, CD-ROM
d. braille

27. Indexes by periodicity of the index
a. one-time, closed-end indexes
b. continuing, open-end indexes
Indexes by authorship
a. authored: an authored index; a separately authored
document distinct from the document(s) that is (are)
being indexed. It is created independently by one or
more persons through intellectual analysis of text, as
distinguished from indexes that are created solely
through algorithmic analysis of text carried out
electronically
b. automatically generated