I agree wholeheartedly that key words is a step in the right direction.
Eventually, I suspect we will have full text indexing. But for now it
would help to know what the author thought of key words. This is
especially a good beginning for historians who do not generally provide
abstrcts. vernon burton, UIUC.
In message Fri, 24 Dec 1993 00:03:08 -0600,
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 14:48:36 ECT
>From: FD78@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
>Subject: Abstracts for journal articles
>
> Robert Schnucker, editor of the SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL,
>recently published an article in SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING (U. of Toronto),
>calling on editors of historical journals to publish abstracts and
>key words for each article, preferably under the title on the first
>page of each article. Schnucker believes that this practice would
>save researchers considerable time and would also position historical
>journals for any future on-line search tools that may become widely
>available.
> Since some members of H-CivWar are editors of journals or serve
>on editorial boards and since virtually all subscribers to H-CivWar
>browse through historical journals at one time or another, I thought
>perhaps you might have some ideas about this topic. Do you think
>this is a good idea? A bad idea? Why? Any suggestions along those
>lines?
> If H-CivWar gets enough feedback from subscribers on this
>question, perhaps we could forward "the sense of the meeting" to
>Prof. Schnucker. So -- what do you think?
>
>Richard Lowe
>U. of North Texas
>fd78@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 16:17:33 ECT
>From: "K.Webb" <k.webb@nla.gov.au>
>Subject: Re: Abstracts for journal articles
>
>On Thu, 23 Dec 1993 FD78@vaxb.acs.unt.edu wrote:
>
>> Robert Schnucker, editor of the SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL,
>> recently published an article in SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING (U. of Toronto),
>> calling on editors of historical journals to publish abstracts and
>> key words for each article, preferably under the title on the first
>> page of each article. Schnucker believes that this practice would
>> save researchers considerable time and would also position historical
>> journals for any future on-line search tools that may become widely
>> available.
>
>I have to admit that I don't read historical journals, but this practice
>is common in the computing world. There is some debate though about its
>use. First, although an author/editor may be presumed to know what the
>article's about B-) his/her choice of terms may not accord with those
>used by the database provider (and users).
>
>Second, with even the current generation of search tools (such as WAIS) it
>is relatively easy and efficient to index the whole article, so to select only
>an abstract and key terms for indexing provides the user with less than is
>possible and desirable.
>
>But it's a step in the right direction.
>
>And a Merry Christmas from the gloriously sunny antipodes.
>
>Kerry
>
>
>**************************************** _________________
>Kerry Webb T T T T T T T T
>k.webb@nla.gov.au I I I I I I I I
>National Library of Australia I I I I I I I I
>Phone: +616 2621484 Fax: +616 2733648 T T T T T T T T
> ===================
>****************************************