Progress in automatic information retrieval

A rising host of practical problems are plaguing activities (such as libraries) that exhibit the ‘cumulative effect.’ Time-sharing computer systems, and the automatic analysis of information by statistical and structural means, are shaping a variety of methods and procedures that may provide a feasible solution “So much time and effort has been spent chasing the will-o´-the-wisp of automatic document and data retrieval that far too little attention has been paid to those positive phenomena (such as man-to-man communication) which have kept the whole show going in spite of the alleged ‘information explosion.’” A. G. Oettinger¹ “The geometrical rate of increase in scientific and technological publications raises no particular problems, does not create any particular threatening situations, and does not require crash programs…. The only areas in which the retrieval situation is intrinsically worsening are those which exhibit the ‘cumulative effect,’ especially the areas of law, patent searching, and library acquisitions.” Y. Bar Hillel²