Will Indexes Survive ?

Some designers of tools for presenting online books are discarding the traditional "back-of-the book" index in favor of other means of retrieving information. Is this trend justified? This paper reports the results of a user study that revealed tha tmany first-time users of a product find the index a very valuable way to access information, even when other facilities for accessing information are available. Compared to a full-text search facility, an index offers the advantages of term recognition, structural hierarchies, and connections between concepts. Rather than dismissing it, tool designers and authors should better understand its functionality, and attempt to improve it by takng advantage offeatures that are unique to the online medium.