SYSTEMATIC SUBJECT INDEXING Available to Purchase

The function of a subject index is above all practical: it is a working tool designed to help the user to find his way about the documented information in a given subject field. Any system of indexing and classification must be judged by its practical value to the user, not by its conformity to a set of abstract principles. Despite this, it is only on the basis of inductively derived principles that a system can be constructed at all.