The indexing, which complements the full-text, will enable many of the problems of natural language searching to be overcome by adding the enhancement of controlled terms to your data. This is referred to as Automatic Indexing. If you index those documents using a controlled thesaurus this is referred to as manual indexing. In the experience of these writers and, to a limited extent, from our own database, both methods are essential if you are to meet the high expectations of your users. This is not cheap and it is not easy.
Indexing is a highly skilled and vital part of any useful database.
Staff time and skills will need to be allocated to that task. Indexing has been one of the most difficult aspects of our computerisation. Teaching people to index accurately and concisely is particularly difficult. It is a task few people enjoy doing and, therefore, few people understand the importance of indexing. Indexing is also very subjective as no two indexers view a document in the same way.