Computer aided thesaurus construction: The speech communication association information retrieval system∗

This research was sponsored by contributions from the Speech Communication Association, the International Communication Association, the Speech Association of the Eastern States, the Southern Speech Communication Association, the Central States Speech Association, the Western Speech Association, and The Pennsylvania State University.

Abstract

This article describes the processes involved in the development of an information retrieval system for the Speech Communication Association. It attempts to show the use of the computer in several phases of this development. Essentially, the steps involved in this process are: 1. Delimit the concepts being used in the data base. 2. Organize these concepts into a faceted thesaurus. 3. Index the abstracts in the data base with the appropriate concepts. 4. Create a computer system that will retrieve abstracts indexed with the descriptor terms. The system is now operational, and the data base and thesaurus are being continuously up‐dated.

Notes

This research was sponsored by contributions from the Speech Communication Association, the International Communication Association, the Speech Association of the Eastern States, the Southern Speech Communication Association, the Central States Speech Association, the Western Speech Association, and The Pennsylvania State University.