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Subject:Re: Indexing Online Books: Cost Effective? From:Mark Hagen <mahagen -at- MTU -dot- EDU> Date:Mon, 8 Nov 1993 17:32:41 -0600
In discussing the issue of indexing in on-line hypertext, Ms. Lori Lathrop
writes:
> . . . A well-written index, whether it's for printed or online
>documentation is more useful than any other retrievability tool. The
>real advantage that an index has is that it provides a topic analysis
>and shows the reader how topics relate.
>Even hypertext links in online documentation are less effective than
>an index when readers want to understand organizational and hierarchical
>concepts.
While I agree that indexes are valuable in written texts, they are
valuable because they offer an alternative method of reading the text (as
opposed to the good old cover-to-cover approach).
In hypertext (assuming the hypertext is well designed) this alternative
reading approach is available through the links. Relations between topics
are "links" in hypertext. An index becomes redundant and, I would argue
unnecessary. (Though a user must be presented with choices allowing
himself or herself an access point to the information sought)
Mark A. Hagen
Michigan Technological University
(mahagen -at- mtu -dot- edu)
