Indexing Aid Project: Research on Knowledge-Based Indexing of the Medical Literature

摘要

Research is being conducted in the Indexing Aid Project, Automated Classification and Retrieval Program, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, on the development of interactive knowledge-based systems for computer-assisted indexing of the periodical medical literature. The principal areas of research are knowledge representation and indexing for document retrieval. The report describes the project and the prototype Indexing Aid System. The system uses an experimental framebased knowledge representation language, FrameKit, implemented in Franz Lisp, and is designed to interact with trained MEDLINE indexers who will be prompted to enter subject terms as slot values in filling in document-specific frame data structures that are derived from the knowledge base frames. In addition, the automatic application of rules associated with the knowledge base frames produces a set of MeSH keyword indices to the document. The Indexing Aid System exhibits important features which are characteristic of frame systems; representation of explicit relationships through slots which express the relations; slot values, restrictions on slot values, and rules attached to slots (procedural attachments) made available by inheritance through inherits-from hierarchies; and slot values made available by retrieval from other slots (internal retrieval). The report is in three parts: Overview of the Indexing Aid Project and System. Indexing Aid System Design Document, and Indexing Aid System User Manual.