Converting the H.W. Wilson Company indexes to an automated system: a functional analysis*
Issue title: Special Issue containing papers from the Spring 1984 Meeting of the Association of Information and Dissemination Centers on “The Economics of Data-base Production” and containing selected summaries of presentations from the Ninth International CODATA Conference, 1984
Guest editors: A.W. Elias, C. van de Weteringh and T. Matsumura
Affiliations: The H.W. Wilson Company, 950 University Avenue, Bronx, NY 10452, USA
Note: [*] Based on a presentation delivered at the Spring Meeting of the Association of Information and Dissemination Centers (ASIDIC) in New Orleans on 19 March 1984.
Abstract: The H.W. Wilson Company is presenting a new online information system. The Wilson system is an electronic editorial support system currently utilized by the Wilson staff of subject specialists, catalogers, and professional indexers. The system was designed to provide editorial management of Wilson indexes, and online and offline retrieval capabilities through powerful search and retrieval commands available in the Wilsonline retrieval system. The characteristics of the system as currently used by our professional staff are described in this paper. The Wilson Company has prepared this technical description of the Wilson system to keep potential users informed of our automation efforts, which will improve the timeliness, currency, and quality of the Wilson indexes. The authority validation used by the Wilson system, for example, guarantees and enhances the integrity of the indexing data which our customers have come to depend on in the printed index. This level of quality is further maintained in all electronic versions of the Wilson indexes. It is Wilson's intent to keep the library community abreast of its technological developments, and to incorporate suggested changes during the developmental process. The capabilities described in this document represent the system as it is actually being used today by Wilson staff. The company will continue to develop and expand the Wilsonline online search and retrieval capabilities in order to provide libraries with high quality data-base and printed indexes.
