Indexes and Abstracts:

Dissecting the Resource

By

M. Leedy

Indexes Defined

• “Indexes point to information located somewhere else.”

• “An index is a tool that is used to locate information within a document.”

(Bopp and Smith 73)

Types of IndexesPrint indexes

– Common dictionary alphabetical Index• “Alphabetical list of topics and subjects that [typically] appear at

the end of many books. It refers to all the important ideas or names mentioned in a book and lists the pages where they can be found.” (Garnes 107)

• These indexes also refer to periodicals and provide bibliographic citations. (Bopp and Smith 73)

• Ex. Readers Guide to Periodical Literature.

– Classified analytical index• Refer to contents of books and periodicals, etc…• “Groups many individual subtopics under major subject headings.”

(Garnes 107)• Ex. Library and Information Science Abstracts.

Types of Indexes

• Electronic Indexes– Dictionary catalog

• Alphabetizes all of the access points (title, author, etc.) in one file. (Lensenmeyer)

– Divided catalog• Breaks out the access points into separate files.• Ex. Dialog by ProQuest. (Lensenmeyer)

• TI1 TI3 TI4• Reference and Information Services

Print Indexes vs. Electronic

• Classified Print indexes are arranged hierarchically and show each citation.– General topics listed first followed by more

specific ones.

• Electronic Indexes, when displayed, tend to be arranged alphabetically (lacking hierarchy) and also require a second step to reveal the records themselves.

(Bopp and Smith 85)

EBSCOhost Subject (Descriptor) Index

EBSCOhost Subject (Descriptor) Index

EBSCOhost Company Index

WilsonWeb Author Index

Indexes vs. Catalogs (OPACs)• “Indexing generally provides access to parts of

larger bibliographic items—articles in periodicals, poetry in collections, chapters in books.” (Beck, Indexing versus Cataloging)– Generally used to identify unknown items pertaining to a

topic. (Bopp and Smith 85)

• “Cataloging provides access to whole entities -- books, serials (journals).” (Beck, Indexing versus Cataloging)– Generally used to identify known items. (Bopp and

Smith 85)• Serendipitous browsing of the shelves leads to discovery.

Indexes & Abstracts vs. Catalogs

• “Indexes and Abstracts can be used to more fully reveal resources [e.g. articles] not covered in the general catalog.”– Resources are often not locally held.

• A primary function of a catalog is to confirm holdings.– OPACs are increasingly providing more

access to intellectual contents, as well as materials not available in the local collection.

(Bopp and Smith 509)

Abstracts

• Provide a brief summary of contents

• Often are descriptive

• Assist in relevance judgments

• Should contain important keywords.

• Are time consuming and expensive to create.– In many cases authors are writing their own.

(Bopp and Smith 509)

Thesauri & Descriptors

• Thesaurus: A collection of words or phrases arranged hierarchically with relational links providing authority control to the intellectual content contained within an index’s resources.– Broader, narrower, and related terms.– Online thesauri are typically not precoordinated like

catalog subject headings or some print indexes. Boolean operators are utilized.

(Bopp and Smith 78 & 79)

EBSCOhost Thesaurus

EBSCOhost Thesaurus

EBSCOhost Thesaurus

EBSCOhost Thesaurus

EBSCOhost Thesaurus

EBSCOhost Thesaurus Explode

• When you Explode a term, you create a search query that “explodes” the subject heading. The headings are exploded to retrieve all references indexed to that term as well as all references indexed to any narrower subject terms (“Help. Thesaurus”)

EBSCOhost Thesaurus Explode

EBSCOhost Thesaurus Explode

Dissection of the Resource

• Print indexes are sometimes divided up into sections—author, subject, title (maybe). Sections can be alphabetical or classified within a given resource. (Bopp and Smith 76)

• Electronic indexes are more versatile, often allowing a large diversity of fields (intellectual and bibliographic) to be searched individually or simultaneously utilizing controlled vocabulary and keyword strategies.

A Brief, Selective History of Entities Associated with Index History

• The H.W. Wilson Company, since 1898– Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, since

1901 (“About Wilson”)• 20 print indexes (“Print Indexes”)• 80 databases (“About Wilson”)• WilsonWeb Information Retrieval System, since

1997 (“About Wilson”)

A Brief, Selective History of Entities Associated with Index History

• Eugene Garfield– Founder of the Institute for Scientific

Information (ISI), now a major division of Thomson-Reuters (“Eugene Garfield”)

– One of the founders of bibliometrics—citation indexes

• Web of Science– allow users to search forward in time from a known article

to more recent publications which cite the known item [and vice versa] (“Bibliometrics”)

Works Cited• “About Wilson.” HWWilson. 2009. The H.W. Wilson

Company. 4 July 2009 <www.hwwilson.com>.• Beck, Susan E. “LSC 311 Information Literacy.” NMSU. 2

July 2009. New Mexico State University. 4 July 2009 <http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/lsc311/beck/index.html>.

• “Bibliometrics.” Wikipedia. 21 June 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 July 2009 <www.wikipedia.org>.

• Bopp, Richard E. and Linda C. Smith. Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, a division of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2001.

• “Eugene Garfield.” Wikipedia. 16 June 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 July 2009 <www.wikipedia.org>.

Works Cited• Garnes, Sara. “Index.” The World Book Encyclopedia.

10. 2007• “Help. Thesaurus.” EBSCO. 2009. EBSCO Industries,

Inc. 4 July 2009 <http://support.ebsco.com>.• Lensenmeyer, Nancy. Lecture. Online Information

Systems class. Columbus, OH. 8 September 2008.• “Print Indexes.” HWWilson. 2009. The H.W. Wilson

Company. 4 July 2009 <www.hwwilson.com>.