ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) is citing Data Harmony’s Machine Aided IndexerTM (M.A.I.) software for increased productivity in its Engineering Specialties division. Installed in July, 2001 at its project office in Cleveland, Ohio, M.A.I. is bringing “increased…capacity for editorial throughput…while helping improve our indexing quality,” says development specialist Scott Ryan. “We were up in two weeks,” adds Carole Houk, Managing Editor for Materials Information, “and we noticed improvement in productivity right away.”
CSA has been a premier publisher of abstracts and indexes to scientific and technical research literature for over 30 years. Before M.A.I., the division’s editors indexed a variety of materials journals for their online databases using an existing thesaurus (controlled hierarchical vocabulary) via its installed Cuadra Star system. Typical in this kind of process, individual editors may apply descriptive terms differently or inconsistently over time or differently from one another, contributing to the phenomenon known as “editorial drift,” which can result in impaired search and retrieval efficiency. Matt Dunie, president of CSA, was determined to address this potentially costly element in the editorial workflow.
The choice of Data Harmony’s M.A.I. was based on its ease of use, productivity enhancement, and its ability, in Ryan’s words, “to improve our indexing quality by holding down editorial drift.” As a bonus, M.A.I. was easily hooked to the existing Cuadra Star system. By harnessing the four modules of M.A.I., editors began almost immediately to reap its benefits, increasing both the quality and quantity of their indexing.
Marjorie Hlava, president of Data Harmony and its parent company, Access Innovations, Inc., noted that “With an existing controlled vocabulary such as the Thesaurus of Metallurgical Terms, the implementation build is very fast.” The process began with CSA first loading its thesaurus into M.A.I.’s Rule Builder module, using a combination of logical statements, Boolean operators, semantic analysis, and natural language to create the second module, the Rule Base. The third module, Concept Extractor, employs algorithms to match input text read into it to create a list of suggested indexing terms.
“From that list,” Hlava explained, “the human editor can select the most appropriate indexing terms, adding others as needed.” The fourth module, Statistics Collector, records candidate terms from the Concept Extractor as well as terms applied from outside the system, permitting the Rule Base, also called a Knowledge Domain, to “learn” from the data what new rules or refinements to add.
Says CSA’s Ryan, "We have found M.A.I. to be accurate and efficient, meeting and exceeding our expectations. The rule builder is flexible, powerful, and intuitively clear…, its term suggestions are right where we want them to be. We are delighted with both the package itself and the technical support and training we received from Data Harmony." Hlava returned the compliment. "They are a great group to work with," she said.
M.A.I. is a key element of the Data Harmony suite of content management tools, which includes XML Intranet SystemTM, Thesaurus MasterTM, and 44 load-ready Knowledge Domains. Data Harmony is the brand name for software tools developed by Access Innovations, Inc. Access specializes in outsourced database development and maintenance, data capture, conversion, and migration services, abstracting and indexing, document analysis, Internet and intranet services, and text and data element tagging. You may learn more by visiting the websites at www.dataharmony.com and www.accessinn.com, each of Access Innovations, Inc., which is located at 131 Adams St. NE in Albuquerque, NM 87108-1201.
CSA is a privately-owned information company located in Bethesda, Maryland with offices in Hong Kong, France, and the UK. Content coverage includes the life sciences, environmental and aquatic sciences, computer sciences, materials science and engineering, aerospace, social sciences, and humanities. Visit the website at www.csa.com.
About Data Harmony
software products:
Data Harmony, the software arm of Access Innovations, offers a range of tools that seamlessly work with the newly offered domain taxonomies. For example, Thesaurus Master allows creation of a full ISO/NISO standard compliant thesaurus with customization options for adaptation to web and publishing environments. The Machine Assisted Indexing (MAI) module includes natural language, semantic, syntactic, and statistical algorithms in addition to allowing the user to further control and refine their automatic classification system through a sophisticated rule base creation interface. The Data Harmony system is controlled at the desktop by the user rule base interface and does not require complex training and retraining of sets as terms change in usage or association.
Domain taxonomies are available for a one time charge. Update options are available. They may be augmented for internal use. They may not be resold without prior arrangement. For additional information and pricing, contact Access Innovations.
More information on
Data Harmony can be found at www.dataharmony.com.
About Access Innovations:
Access Innovations is a woman-owned, small business in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During their 26-year history, Access Innovations has expanded to encompass all aspects of database creation and electronic publishing. The acquisition of the NICEM audiovisual database and the establishment of its Data Harmony and NewsIndexer content management products have made Access Innovations a global leader in the information industry. Their clients include the Association of Radiologic Technologists, the American Chemical Society, the Naval Post Graduate School Homeland Security, the OPOCE of the European Parliament, Kimberly Clark and Genetech.