On indexing, retrieval and the meaning of about

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the concept of about as it is used in its information retrieval sense when, for example, an indexer judges that a document is (or is not) about some given subject. The problem with about is that it is a very complex notion and we are unable to say precisely what it is we do when we make judgment of aboutness. Since about is at the heart of indexing, how are we to formulate any proper theory of indexing if we cannot explicate precisely the key concept of about? In this paper we look at this concept of about and offer a solution to the problem mentioned; it consists of an operational definition of about which interprets about in terms of search behavior.A second objective of this paper is to show that about is, in fact, not the central concept in a theory of document retrieval. A document retrieval system ought to provide a ranked output (in response to a search query) not according to the degree that they are about the topic sought by the inquiring patron, but rather according to the probability that they will satisfy that person's information need. This paper shows how aboutness is related to probability of satisfaction.

Learning to link with wikipedia

“…Here the aim is to identify the most significant topics; those which the document was written about (Maron, 1977). These index topics can be used to summarize the document and organize it under category-like headings.…”

The data-document distinction revisited

“…For example, the degree of representational indeterminacy between the phrase "SSN" and someone's actual social security number in a data base is the probability that someone using the term "SSN" as a search term (in, for example, an SQL query) will not find the retrieval of data or documents linked to social security numbers useful. If we symbolize representational indeterminacy as R Ind then we can formalize its definition as [adapted from Maron, 1977]:…”

Uma arquitetura hibrida para a indexação de documentos do Diário Oficial do Município de Cachoeiro de Itapemirim

“…Nesse processo, o modo de leitura, apesar de pouco explorado e avaliado pela literatura científica, é a fase principal da operação, sendo considerado fator determinante para seu sucesso (Silva & Fujita, 2004). Ainda podem ocorrer divergências entre indexadores que atribuem diferentes termos-chave a um mesmo documento, ou ainda um mesmo indexador atribuindo diferentes termos-chave a um documento em momentos diferentes (Maron, 1977;Guedes, 1994;Fujita, 1999).…”