The economics and ABCs of indexes

April, 2002

By giving users a familiar, browsable structure of terms and cross references, the A - Z index eliminates a major frustration of full text search engines -- the inability to formulate an effective query. More than just a finding tool, the index is an intellectual product in its own right, capable of shedding new light on a subject.

The value of an index varies with the time value of the user, the number of users, and the frequency of use. The cost is modest compared to the total cost of a professional book. The economics of indexes are harder to calculate on a corporate intranet because the benefits to specific users are harder to pin down. From a quality control and cost/benefit point of view, it's easier to index departmental collections and then integrate them into a corporate taxonomy.

A variety of software tools are available to reduce indexing costs at each stage in the indexing process. These include dedicated indexing programs used by professional indexers, desktop publishing programs like Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, relational databases, and "concept extraction" tools. Even the most sophisticated and comprehensive tools require human editing.

In addition to helping create indexes, programs can also be used to deploy them for use in other applications (e.g. electronic commerce) or indexing new documents.

More... (members only) How to become a member

Created on May 13, 2002