The computer-stored thesaurus and its use in concept processing

As the state of the art of computer development has advanced, the documentalist has turned more and more to mechanization for solutions to many of his problems. The process of retrieval of information, especially the searching of coded indexes prior to the selection of the document images themselves, has captured the lion's share of applications effort. The retrieval phase, however, often poses relatively minor difficulties; the most crucial point in the documentation process---the one which may contribute more than any other to its over-all success or failure---is that of indexing the documents prior to their entry into the search files. The time-honored computer principle of "GIGO," garbage ingarbage out, could apply nowhere better than in the indexing process. Because of the crucial nature of this function, it usually proves to be the most expensive operation of the information center, the presence of a goodly assortment of data processing equipment notwithstanding.