Initial-words and their meaning in information techniques

Abstract

No fully satisfactory solution has so far been found for the automation of information retrieval due to the immense complexity of the task: a vast material has to be analysed continuously, the actual information is to be picked out, and the individual pieces of information are to be supplied with distinctive marks or notations, which facilitate matching of the needs with the documents. The most feasible solution is to prepare certain programs for the existing data processing machines which may serve as a basis for the mechanized analysis of the information contents of the documents and their comparison with the actual needs. There are still some difficulties in this respect, but a part of the task may be theoretically solved to a satisfactory extent; several information institutes are engaged in experiments with automatic retrieval systems, and initial-words representing such systems are continually appearing in the literature. The author attempts to facilitate the readers orientation by explaining the abbreviation and its meaning in case of eighty-five initial-words.