INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

[Music] is designed to help you project your film properly is your picture in Focus if not set your lens so that these lines are sharp and clear on all parts of the screen now adjust the volume control so that my voice can be clearly heard in all parts of the room if the beep and Flash were together the projector is properly threaded if you heard the beep before you saw the flash the lower loop is too short if the sound was late the lower loop is too long here it is again 5 4 3 2 1 the film is ready for screening you may now turn off your projector [Music] the printed word made po our world offering wisdom to any man if he but wished it today we live by the printed word modern business could not exist without the printed word but the volume has become a mixed blessing we need to carry on our work for we create new information at such a rate that every enough technical documents alone are produced to fill a 168 volume encyclopedia the service of information to business and science is being impeded by the volume we must absorb and also by the ambiguity with which we file away knowledge it is a pressing problem of our time [Music] companies are working to overcome the problems of the information explosion symbolic of one is alamer international imaginary but realistically Diversified and dynamic and the means Almer used to solve its problems are quite real what are some of these problems a division of Almer proudly announced a new product only to learn another division that just spent 12 months working on a similar item they might as well have been [Music] competitors then there was a process Almer developed at considerable costs because it appeared no one else was considering it information about the competition was there in the files all the time overlook looked [Music] missed another waste less obvious turned up the 6 months it took a large staff to update procedure manuals after an important policy change the time taken by researchers to find information days and weeks instead of [Music] minutes and still less obvious the toll the printed word was taking on Executive time Energies [Music] dis satisfaction finally led to a search for a solution the assignment find the answer it is here that the Almer librarian came up with the first suggestion an answer to a problem he'd been thinking about for some time the library system for classifying information was the heart of the difficulty indexing by subject classification was not specific enough for a document might pertain to many different things at the same time a better way to index documents was by means of the words in the documents themselves the keywords or by assigned descriptors words describing the significant content finer indexing made sense each card referred back to the same document but considering the volume of cards keyword indexing required hand searching might prove too slow diminish the better service he could provide in another department of Almer he discovered a method of attack if data cards could be processed quickly by Machine then machine readable library cards could be searched quickly too and so instead of typing up catalog cards he punched up cards machines could read cards for the author the title The course the key words are descriptors and abstracts these cards became in time a master file for the library as more and more documents were accumulated by means of this machine readable record the library created bulletins catalog cards bibliographies and other lists items the library had always had to type they now flowed mechanically from machines in addition the machinable record enabled the library to do something it had never done before four to create a new type of [Music] index using just the punched up title cards a machine could automatically select key words from a title arrange these words with surrounding words in alphabetical order constructing in effect a complete reference to incoming documents the list was aptly called quick the value of the new type of index was evident a man could spot easily and rapidly those titles which pertain to his field of work it became a quick method for disseminating information at Almer used to show research reports developed within the company it turned up fresh examples of similar work by different people a potential duplication quick indexes soon became used in another way too to help retrieve information by making the indexes accumulative research were able to locate information contained in earlier reports a phone call to the library became routine to obtain abstracts printed out from the master file or the documents themselves enough document references had now accumulated in the master file of machine readable cards Almer was ready to take a significant step to let the machines help find answers to queries manual searching methods were dropped all the keyword or descriptor cards in the master file were reproduced quickly by machine to create a search file on the same new card with a keyword was the number of the document characterized by that keyword all cards with the same keyword were now kept together called an inverted or lookup file it meant that searches were confined to decks of specific keyword cards rather than the entire file the cards used for manual searching were no longer needed a man seeking all references to mathematics vitamins and hormones need wait only long enough for just these three decks to be matched on the collator to reach the cards identifying the documents most likely to contain the information he [Music] wanted in time further growth and more involved types of queries made it desirable to reduce the card file search still further the librarian turned to more advanced machines all keywords belonging to a document were automatically put on a single card by one of the various coding systems which are available the result reduced search time better service to Almer Personnel but equally significant more complex queries could be handled [Music] finally the librarian increased his service to the user by turning to tape and disc for storage of the document information it was a major Advance it was readily accomplished Again by using the original Master deck of punch cards for each document the original cards had proved remarkably useful from the day they were first punched up to create bibliographies indexes and allow searches on sorters matching on collators all tools to finding pertinent information the same cards that were used to convert to more advanced search systems no additional manual punching was required the machine readable Master cards served each time as the system Advanced machines had shown they could serve to disseminate and retrieve references to pertinent [Music] documents the librarian now promoted to director of information at Almer turned to other gaps in the company Information Program alerting people to information as early as possible was the next goal profiles of documents had been created why not profiles of people's interests listed by key terms or descriptors a machinable interest profile for each person was created called a users profile as a document came in its keywords were transferred onto tape or disk and matched against the keywords of the user's profile when the number of matches between the documents keywords and the person key interests met a predetermined percentage the computer produced a notification card which brings a new item of information to the user in the form of an abstract selective dissemination of information feeding back a reply card to The Selective system helped keep it responsive to the user's changing interests the impact of SDI on Almer people was substantial it saved each person time spent looking for news in his field of Interest helped to make certain crucial new information was not overlooked reduced the chance that dollars would be spent time wasted doing things others were already doing or had done the director of information had forged another Link in the Almer [Music] system he was ready for a new challenge the head of administration asked him what he could do about searching compy procedure manuals a repetitious chore involving considerable work when changes were required each procedure was given a section and a subsection identification number onto tape were transferred the entire text of these procedures word by word the machine first created an alphabetical vocabulary of all keywords used in the procedures and after each keyword it also listed the identification number of every section in which that word occurred a query was framed by using keywords these were fed into the computer which searched the text stored on Magnetic Tape whenever the machine found the keywords used in the query it would print out the reference or the text of the appropriate procedure which required changes full document retrieval full information rapidly available by Machine methods another advance toward the Almer totally mechanized information system observing what could be accomplished other Departments of Almer converted to machine methods the Personnel Department adopted the new system to Aid in the search for technical Personnel within the company it was no longer a lengthy job matching a man to a request skill profiles of each man on tape were quickly matched against the [Music] requirement the purchasing Department using profiles of vendors turned up cost information quality and performance ratings delivery schedules now no vendor or factor was overlooked and the information was retrieved quickly design Engineers matched customer orders against previously developed products the mechanized retrieval system now compared thousands of product characteristics data had the work been done before the item desired would not be accidentally created again Almer has made tremendous Headway in improving information handling and so far all of this with presently available equipment but Almer management is also looking ahead to the day when it will find use for new Document Handling technology they looking at an experimental Advanced system IBM is designed to retrieve any one of millions of pages of printed or visual matter from a central file within seconds because of the growing need for compact storage and fast retrieval of millions of documents items such as engineering drawings Printed Matter photographs and x-rays documents are reduced to 1,000 of their original area for storing first by microfilming then by further reduction in an image converter these reduced images are stored on film strips and as each image is transferred to the film strip control cards are automatically punched to record its location in the file the film strips are filed in cells held in a bin or document file from where they are automatically retrieved the system can be extended to contain many million pages of documents equivalent to many miles of ordinary file cabinets without removing the document image from the file a tiny image of the document can be photographically transferred to an IBM aperture card while not commercially available this system is indicative of IBM's Advanced approach to information storage and retrieval problems the cards containing these images can be used to project the documents full size on a screen or to produce hard copies IBM scientists foresee the day when the executive will have Dynamic information tools including a video terminal that can receive images of documents of almost unlimited variety the executive of the future might call up information on a screen even his morning mail without ever shuffling papers in the simulation model of such a system the user interrogates the system a printed page or list of figures on a business operation is instantly displayed or more detailed information and figures on specific aspects of the business are at hand this terminal could be connected with an information center to provide the combined functions of data processing and information retrieval another another step toward total information [Music] processing Almer International symbol of progress of companies starting to solve their information problems and those who have already taken long strides who recognize that the ever increasing pace of business government and science requires newer more effective methods for handling information those organizations who advance to handle their business intelligence expeditiously will have a Competitive Edge the very basis upon which tomorrow's success and Leadership may be decided [Music] h