Page 236 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 11: Indexing Language: Types and Characteristics

Notes
and the connections themselves would be objects. In addition we will need map objects and some
functions (to be specified as needed).
When a word is learned certain essential characteristics, memories or subsets of memories are
connected to it; other connections can be added over time.
A simple, common word like “dog” would be richly connected. Figure 11.8 shows some of its
connections. There are connections to other words, to memories, and to relationships like “kind of.”
Secondary connections may be important to understanding certain aspects of dogs. Internal to the
word-object should be the most essential characteristics.

Figure 11.8: Dog related vocabulary

Memory 1
Memory 2 Memory 3 Memory 4
Protected me Barks Bit-danger!

Labrador
Kinds of
Animal Poode
Kind of Dog
not a
Doberman
Puppy Pet Cat
Etc.

Given the model, the acquisition process is straightforward given a few functions. The main function
is able to associate a word (sound and written word) with a set of memories. Various abstraction
functions are needed.

The access process is also straightforward, if we can assume a function that approximates holographic
access to words.
Indexing and Mapping
The Indexed Ordinary Geographic Map

Ordinary geographic maps (2 dimensional maps of terrain) give a picture of the world that is typically
much simpler than a book about a topic. To make such maps more useful they often are indexed,
with the locators being from a coordinate system, usually a numbered dimension and a lettered
dimension (or for more precision, latitude and longitude). Most people have experienced the utility
of maps (paper street maps, for instance) and the indexes that come with them. Maps can represent
other constructs besides geography. In computer science we speak of memory maps, for instance.
Books as Maps with Indexes of “Places”

Consider someone hunting a treasure. As an example we’ll use a new employee who claimed to be
fully versed in creating Adobe pdf files, but who actually has many gaps in her knowledge. She
needs to find answers to her questions quickly, and is using a book “Everything You Need to Know
About Acrobat” to find the answers. In effect the page numbering of the book corresponds to the
coordinate grid and the entries in the index correspond to places on a map. A poor index could
cause a our hypothetical employee to lose her job.
One major difference between word indexes and maps is that cities (or other place named in maps)
are well-defined and subjects suitable for entries are not always so well defined. The book is a sort
of map of an area of knowledge, but the author has far more flexibility in presentation schemes for

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