Types of Indexes

TYPES OF INDEXES

Indexes are an important tool for document information retrieval and they are of different types and categories.
Indexes has been categorized based on arrangement, by purpose or even by specific subject fields. Types of indexes
includes author indexes, subject, title indexes which are based on access point; among others.
Alphabetical Indexes
• One of the best known methods of index arrangement is the single alphabetical index in which names and subject
entries are filed together. This is a kind of general purpose and simple index forms that many people are familiar
with. All the entries come in one alphabetical arrangement with subject terms, author names and place names.
Author Indexes
• Author indexes are usually alphabetically arranged indexes in which the headings are the names of the individual
or corporate body responsible for creating the works or document indexed. The entries essentially refer to
persons, organisations, government agencies, universities who are chiefly responsible for the intellectual content
the documents.
• It is important to note that author indexes should be created under some well spelt out guidelines, so that crucial
decisions as regards the nature of authorship are made in a consistent manner. Such decisions concern number of
names to be allowed per entry in the case of multiple authors, titles to be used, the form of names for authors
(use of full names or initials, authors’ use of pseudonyms etc.)
TYPES OF INDEXES CONT’D
Periodical Indexes
• Periodical indexes are lists of periodical articles in which citations are
entered by subjects or in a classified manner, and sometimes under
the author’s names separately or in a single alphabetical order.
Classified Indexes
• This is an index in which entries are arranged under headings
indicating hierarchy divisions and sub-divisions with classes based on
the subject matter being indexed. It does not follow the conventional
alphabetical style; its arrangement is hierarchical, of related topics
and working down to the specific.
Periodical Indexes
• Periodical indexes are lists of periodical articles in which citations are
entered by subjects or in a classified manner, and sometimes under
the author’s names separately or in a single alphabetical order.
Classified Indexes
• This is an index in which entries are arranged under headings
indicating hierarchy divisions and sub-divisions with classes based on
the subject matter being indexed. It does not follow the conventional
alphabetical style; its arrangement is hierarchical, of related topics
and working down to the specific.
Internet and Multi-media Indexes
• They exist in automatic and implicit forms, not in that exact form as we know it. they
perform indexing functions allowing users to find their way to what is desired using
electronic nodes and links between the nodes;
• The multi-media index brings together images, sounds, and textual materials. The
challenge of indexing this multi-media information seems intractable, however there
is the need to develop and refine the indexing of these media.
Word Indexes
• Word and name indexes, sometimes called concordances are indexes to the
individual names and words that the author used and in some sense they closely
represent the information and ideas that authors had in mind when creating the
manuscript
Coordinate Indexes
Coordinate indexes involve the combination of concepts in order to create subject headings or
descriptors to documents. They are created by combining two or more single index terms to create
a phrase that will satisfy the need of the user. For instance, if the individual index terms “Banda”
“tribe” and “Uganda” are combined, the result is a distinctive class “Baganda tribe of Uganda”.
Citation Indexes
• A citation indexes is made up of a list of articles having a sub list under each article of
subsequently published paper that cite article. In a given paper, a citation index shows those who
cited the paper at a later point in time. It can also be described as a three part index in which
1. Works cited are listed alphabetically by name of author cited,
2. Names of the citing authors or sources.
3. Full bibliographic information for the citing author is given in a source index.
Permuted Title Indexes
• This refers to a type of subject index in which keywords in the title are
extracted or assigned as descriptors of documents content. Indexers
believe that titles of documents to a great extent reflect their content.
CONCLUSION
The different types of indexes described above perform functions that
distinguish them from one another, although there are areas of overlap
in some of the indexes.

Types of Indexes

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