Library and Information Science

Beginning with Luhn's pioneering works, many investigators have been involved in the development of theories and techniques of automatic indexing. Practicality of basic researches, however, is discussed rather pessimistically, because the present trend shows a direction toward computer-aided indexing in rather restricted environment.

Recognizing the fact that the reason for the difficulty lies basically in the inherent complexity of natural languages, this paper suggests to take a paradoxical approach to the problem of automatic indexing; practical systems can be established in special environments where automatic indexing systems may not be hampered by such language complexity.

Typical pathological reporting systems, now operational in the U.S., in which findings are given orally on the spot and processed automatically are discussed as a good example of feasible quasi-automatic indexing systems from the following points: communication language consists of highly specialized and well-defined non-phrases; the volume of data to be processed is sizable; and the format is rather simple.