A textbook for a course in either an academic or a professional education program for librarians. Reviews the principles, practice, consistency, and quality of indexing; the types and functions of abstracts; natural language in informating retrieval; and the future of indexing and abstracting services. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Paper on the purpose, aims, membership and current concerns of the national level federation of abstracting and indexing services of the USA - includes graphs and references.

Despite their changing role, abstracts remain useful in the digital world. Highly beneficial to information professionals and researchers who work and publish in different fields, this book summarizes the most important and up-to-date theory of abstracting, as well as giving advice and examples for the practice of writing different kinds of abstracts. The book discusses the length, the functions and basic structure of abstracts, outlining a new approach to informative and indicative abstracts. The abstractors' personality, their linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge and skills are also discussed with special attention. - Despite the relatively large number of textbooks on the topic there is no up-to-date book on abstracting in the English language - In addition to providing a comprehensive coverage of the topic, the proposed book contains novel views - especially on informative and indicative abstracts - The discussion is based on an interdisciplinary approach, blending the methods of library and information science and linguistics

Based on new research and years of practical experience, this guide presents the basic knowledge necessary to become a professional indexer. Synthesizing the thinking and experience of indexers and abstractors over the years, the book introduces readers to such fundamentals as the nature of information, the organization of information, vocabulary control, types of indexes and abstracts, evaluation of indexing, and the use of computers. A new chapter on indexing and the Internet has been added, as has a chapter that lists Web resources for indexers and abstractors. The work concludes with a discussion of the education, training, and job opportunities of the profession, as well as a look to the future. With its simple but thorough approach, this book provides readers with a broad overview of the professions, processes, and art of indexing and abstracting.

This study instructs the beginning abstractor and information scientist on how to abstract the literature of science and technology. It should also be of value to scientists and to management personnel in universities, industry, business, and government who write, use or manage abstracts.