Accessing documents and information in a world without frontiers

Abstract

This extended version of a paper presented at the 30th Annual Conference of the American Society of Indexers (Seattle, 13-16 May 1998) presents an overview of common problems affecting the transfer of information across natural languages. A brief description of the most promising solutions for overcoming information retrieval difficulties in worldwide multilingual networks is provided. Selected quotes dating back to the 1970s and early 1980s show that problems and solutions in this area remain pretty much the same today as they were then.