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For the purposes of this article, the indexing of information is interpreted as the pre‐processing of information in order to enable its retrieval. This definition thus spans a dimension extending from classification‐based approaches (pre‐co‐ordinate) to keyword searching (post‐co‐ordinate). In the first section we clarify our use of terminology, by briefly describing a framework for modelling IR systems in terms of sets of objects, relationships and functions. In the following three sections, we discuss the application of indexing functions to document collections of three specific types: (1) ‘conventional’ text databases; (2) hypertext databases; and (3) the World Wide Web, globally distributed across the Internet.

Executives in large organizations know that they must develop better techniques to manage their greatest asset: knowledge. Organizations currently create and maintain knowledge in isolated systems targeted at specific workgroups. For users outside the workgroup, that knowledge is virtually invisible. Vendors of all manner of tools, from intranet development tools to document management systems to search engines, are calling their products Knowledge Management systems, without regard to what that means. Without new technologies to create revolutionary change in the way knowledge workers create, communicate and manage information, a Knowledge Management system has little chance of improving enterprise knowledge sharing. This paper explores the concepts and technologies associated with an effective Knowledge Management system.

This study aims to discuss a system constructed to satisfy scholars' personal information management requirements when collecting e‐documents, and to include generation of a citation format that can aid paper writing. The system compiles records and personal publications of specific domains collected by individual scholars to form a knowledge set for other scholars to use as a reference. It not only simplifies the data collection process, but also increases the visibility of scholars themselves, along with their papers.

This study analyzes the mechanism of increasing cited frequency of scholars' publications and aggregating relevant documents. It then enables the design of feasible system structures based on this mechanism to form a knowledge set by combining scholars' publications within specific academic domains. In addition, it expedites the gathering of relevant documents by scholars in order to create an accessible archive for subsequent researchers.

By way of an effective system for publication sharing, and not merely offering a reference for scholars in other relevant fields, this system can also improve the visibility of scholars' publications and further enhance the cited frequency of publications.

Combining collected documents and personal publications and sharing those with other scholars for reference can establish a highly effective personal research domain. It not only simplifies the data collection process, but also increases the visibility of personal academic works.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is supported by the Hungarian Ministry of Informatics and Communications (RMKI). RMKI started a research and development project in 2003 with the aim of studying the knowledge management methods for long duration space research projects and to develop an information system providing a base for saving and using the knowledge gathered. The aim of this article is to investigate the RMKI research and development project.

This article first describes the environment of the project, details the questions identified by the project staff, and gives some characteristics of the solutions when found.

The article finds that the outcomes identified by a knowledge management project grow fast and have a tendency to become unmanageable very quickly, even if technical questions are taken into consideration when starting. The main question remains whether an acceptable solution exists in the area covered by the economical resources.

This article focuses on the technical aspects of knowledge management projects and identifies a mechanism for setting up an information system with the capacity to support knowledge preservation for at least a decade, which is considered to be a long period.

Documentation has endowed us with the practice of putting all our records into file folders with serial modes; thus the liability of minding them is generated. We may try to shrink the space and to minimize the labour of document keeping, but the performance of information workers and the people beyond will significantly improve only if we think of the documentation as a corporate fixed asset. As a pioneer of computer‐based document management for the Taiwanese Government, the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Republic of China has enhanced its reputation owing to a high level of performance and user satisfaction at low cost of a computer‐based document management system (DMS). Describes some key issues and practical experience on designing, measuring, and justifying a DMS with the innovative use of information technology in the IDB′s case. Also provides the steps for guiding decision‐making success and the process flow chart for a DMS. These issues should provide guidance to develop a DMS.

With the complication, intensification and specialization of administration, the information drawn up and acquired by administrative organs for the performance of their duties is steadily increasing and has reached immense proportions, and the continued diversification and increase of administrative information is inevitable in the future. In administrative affairs in our country, systematization by means of computerization of activities based around large‐scale, repetitive work is fairly advanced, but fundamentally, that work is still carried out with paper documents at its heart. It is an old survey, but in 1976, the quantity of documents held by internal subdivisions of all provincial governments was such that, converted to B5 size and piled up, the documents would reach 380,000 metres, which is equivalent to 100 times the height of Mt Fuji. Each employee would have as much as about 10 metres of documents.

This conceptual article aims to discuss how the concept of a document and documentation along with a general document model could inform us in the design and engineering of information or rather documentation systems.

This paper presents a broad and complementary document model, derived from the last couple of decades' discussion on what is a document and what is documentation. This model is used as a basis for a method, a conceptual tool or a template for analysis of socio‐technical systems.

The authors contend that the document systems analysis is a holistic approach compared to the traditional systems design and engineering reductionist approach, and also in the context of sociotechnical systems design. The document model is a taxonomy of the constituents of the document and, the authors argue, a potential communication tool in systems design.

The document model presented in this article is discussed more or less solely in the context of information systems design, specifically sociotechnical systems. Moreover, the authors have tried to fit the theory and model within this context here, even though the concepts and thoughts can have much more general implications.

This presentation of a novel document model and framework is presented as a potential tool for systems analysis and design. The authors regard this as a realistic vision for the framework, but at the current stage of development for the model it is probably more useful as draft for such a tool or framework; a point of departure for the discussion of practical – and theoretical – implications of a broad and holistic document model.

A novel, unpublished document model, derived from theoretical discourses of document ontology in the “neo‐documentalist” movement spawned from a particular research community in Tromsø, Norway, is presented and discussed in the light of information systems design.

Documentation plays a key role in navigating the costs of construction projects. Traditional document management systems (TDMS) used in developing countries, however, hinder the achievement of expected cost targets. Although the electronic document management system (EDMS) has been implemented to improve documentation, the Sri Lankan construction industry has failed to effectively adapt to it. Hence, this study aims to provide strategies for the effective application of EDMS to the cost management of Sri Lankan mega construction projects.

This study uses a qualitative approach followed by 12 semi-structured expert interviews. Quantity surveying experts were selected through judgemental sampling. Manual content analysis was used to analyse the data.

The EDMS is more suitable for megaprojects than traditional methods of documentation in terms of functionality, neutrality, interoperability, space, reversibility and delivery speed. However, there are contradictory views about cost and security. Furthermore, five transitional challenges of EDMS have been identified under the three key themes of cost, stakeholder perception and technical difficulties. Four reasons were also identified as causing these five challenges. Seven suggestions were made to deal with these transitional challenges and three key feasible solutions for the Sri Lankan construction industry regarding the EDMS were identified. Development of Sri Lankan software with low initial cost was highlighted as the most feasible solution.

This is a novel study to investigate the applicability of EDMS to cost management mechanisms of megaprojects in Sri Lanka. The findings reveal transitional challenges and appropriate feasible solutions for EDMS adaptation. This can be applied to the cost management of megaprojects in other developing countries as well.

The purpose of this article is to explore the documentation work in pre‐trial investigation performed by the police from the records management perspective. The study, undertaken as doctoral research, is meant to give answers to the questions: what kind of information is recorded in the pre‐trial investigation process, how are recordings made, and what are the regulatory and statutory requirements for the recording processes? The aim is to produce new knowledge of the Finnish recordkeeping field and of the relationships between work processes, record management and information systems.

This study presents findings from a qualitative explorative case study. Data collection methods were based on triangulation of data sources. Data were collected for the period 1999‐2004.

Documentation of activities proved to be a coherent part of pre‐trial investigation. Various activities in the investigation process are reported exactly, with information on criminal cases captured as a record or recorded in registers. Diverse information systems are used in the pre‐trial investigation process. The relationships between tasks, information systems and information management proved to be slight. Information systems do not serve the pre‐trial investigation process in the desired way. Several different legal and statutory requirements concern operations in pre‐trial investigation and their documentation. There are divergences in compliance with legal norms and guidelines depending on types of norms, actors, tasks and cases. The records management norms are not very well‐known, and compliance with them is poor.

There is an obvious need for studies aimed at examining the relations between task performance, information systems and documentation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the favoured and almost ingrained way of managing groups of documents in systems, specifically in electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS), namely the folder, considered by many users as a sine qua non to any information system.

The most significant barrier to successful implementation of EDRMS is “culture” rather than cost. Implicit is a willingness of users to employ EDRM as their method of choice to achieve such an end. Anecdotal evidence and a real case example are shared to explore the approach to developing virtual folders to meet user requirements and organisational needs.

Staffordshire County Council's EDRMS does not employ folders. To save a document, users associate it with a level in the Council's functional business classification scheme (BCS); this is achieved through a series of “saved searches”. Metadata requirements are embedded within the BCS levels and the user chooses a title and functional association for the record.

This is a way of adopting what exists as standard technology within EDRM systems to satisfy a user need. The vital part is to firstly recognise why the barrier existed in the deployment of a functional classification scheme and further to move beyond the “face value” of why the users performed a particular methodology. More controlled and detailed research is required beyond the work that has been completed.

This paper aims to provoke thought around the need to understand perceptions around documents, records and the systems, in particular EDRM systems, that manage them.