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Index

information retrieval
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Alternative Title: indexing
  • Document imaging.

    Document imaging.

    Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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contribution by Poole

Poole
American bibliographer and library administrator whose indexing of periodicals became authoritative.

encyclopaedias

Illustration from the entry on the winds in St. Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, an edition published in Strasbourg c. 1473.
Undoubtedly the major adjunct of the modern encyclopaedia is its index. As early as 1614 the bishop of Petina, Antonio Zara, included a type of index in his Anatomia ingeniorum et scientiarum (“Anatomy of Talents and Sciences”). A Greek professor at Basel, Johann Jacob Hoffman, added an index to his Lexicon universale of 1677; the...

file structure

The basic organization of a computer.
...became possible to access a random data block on the disk. (A data block is the unit of transfer between main memory and auxiliary storage and usually consists of several records.) Files can then be indexed so that an arbitrary record can be located and fetched (loaded into the main memory). An index of a file is much like an index of a book; it consists of a listing of identifiers that...

history of “Encyclopaedia Britannica”

Andrew Bell.
The 24 volumes and index volume of the ninth edition appeared one by one between 1875 and 1889. At the end of the index volume was a list of contributors, together with the abbreviations used for their names as signatures to their articles. In addition, at the beginning of each volume there was a list of the chief articles it contained, together with their authors. The dissertations were...

information processing

Structure of an information system.
...of secondary literature is to “filter” the primary information sources, usually by subject area, and provide the indicators to this literature in the form of reviews, abstracts, and indexes. Over the past 100 years there has evolved a system of disciplinary, national, and international abstracting and indexing services that acts as a gateway to several attributes of primary...
...to analog-form items is subject. The extensive lists of subject headings of library classification schemes provide, however, only a gross access tool to the content of the items. A technique called indexing provides a refinement over library subject headings. It consists of extracting from the item or assigning to it subject and other “descriptors”—words or phrases denoting...

library services

Reading Room of the British Museum, designed by Sidney Smirke in collaboration with Anthony Panizzi and built in the 1850s. Illustration by Smirke, from the Illustrated London News, 1857.
...centres employ their own specialist librarian. Like roll film, magnetic tapes and discs do not readily yield information about their contents and therefore require particular care in labeling and indexing as well as equipment and programming to permit retrieval.

use by Pappus of Alexandria

Mathematicians of the Greco-Roman worldThis map spans a millennium of prominent Greco-Roman mathematicians, from Thales of Miletus (c. 600 bc) to Hypatia of Alexandria (c. ad 400). Their names—located on the map under their cities of birth—can be clicked to access their biographies.
...a treatment of polygons and polyhedra, describes Archimedes’ discovery of the semiregular polyhedra (solid geometric shapes whose faces are not all identical regular polygons). Book 6 is a student’s guide to several texts, mostly from the time of Euclid, on mathematical astronomy. Book 8 is about applications of geometry in mechanics; the topics include geometric constructions made under...
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In a colour-television tube, three electron guns (one each for red, green, and blue) fire electrons toward the phosphor-coated screen. The electrons are directed to a specific spot (pixel) on the screen by magnetic fields, induced by the deflection coils. To prevent “spillage” to adjacent pixels, a grille or shadow mask is used. When the electrons strike the phosphor screen, the pixel glows. Every pixel is scanned about 30 times per second.
television (TV)
TV the electronic delivery of moving images and sound from a source to a receiver. By extending the senses of vision and hearing beyond the limits of physical distance, television has had a considerable...
Oil refinery near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, U.S.
petroleum refining
conversion of crude oil into useful products. History Distillation of kerosene and naphtha The refining of crude petroleum owes its origin to the successful drilling of the first oil well in Titusville,...
Three-dimensional face recognition program shown at a biometrics conference in London, 2004.
artificial intelligence (AI)
AI the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed...
Zeno’s paradox, illustrated by Achilles racing a tortoise.
foundations of mathematics
the study of the logical and philosophical basis of mathematics, including whether the axioms of a given system ensure its completeness and its consistency. Because mathematics has served as a model for...
The nonprofit One Laptop per Child project sought to provide a cheap (about $100), durable, energy-efficient computer to every child in the world, especially those in less-developed countries.
computer
device for processing, storing, and displaying information. Computer once meant a person who did computations, but now the term almost universally refers to automated electronic machinery. The first section...
The gardens at the Palace of Versailles, France, designed by André Le Nôtre.
garden and landscape design
the development and decorative planting of gardens, yards, grounds, parks, and other types of areas. Garden and landscape design is used to enhance the settings for buildings and public areas and in recreational...
Liftoff of the New Horizons spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, January 19, 2006.
launch vehicle
in spaceflight, a rocket -powered vehicle used to transport a spacecraft beyond Earth ’s atmosphere, either into orbit around Earth or to some other destination in outer space. Practical launch vehicles...
Strip of pH paper resting on specimen, with a comparison chart.
chemical analysis
chemistry, determination of the physical properties or chemical composition of samples of matter. A large body of systematic procedures intended for these purposes has been continuously evolving in close...
Molten steel being poured into a ladle from an electric arc furnace, 1940s.
steel
alloy of iron and carbon in which the carbon content ranges up to 2 percent (with a higher carbon content, the material is defined as cast iron). By far the most widely used material for building the...
Automobiles on the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, Boston, Massachusetts.
automobile
a usually four-wheeled vehicle designed primarily for passenger transportation and commonly propelled by an internal-combustion engine using a volatile fuel. Automotive design The modern automobile is...
Paper mill in British Columbia, Canada.
papermaking
formation of a matted or felted sheet, usually of cellulose fibres, from water suspension on a wire screen. Paper is the basic material used for written communication and the dissemination of information....
The basic organization of a computer.
computer science
the study of computers, including their design (architecture) and their uses for computations, data processing, and systems control. The field of computer science includes engineering activities such...
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