Pre-Coordination + Post-Coordination = the Case for Partial Coordination

The introduction of computerized post-coordination has solvedmany of the problems of pre-coordinated subject access. However, theadoption of computerized post-coordination results in the loss of some precoordinationbenefits. Specifically, the effect of hiding terms within thecontext of others is lost in post-coordination which gives lead status to everydocument term, This results in spurious matches of terms out of context.Library patrons and Internet searchers are increasingly dissatisfied withsubject access performance, in part because of unmanageably large retrievalsets. The need to enhance precision and limit the size of retrieval setsmotivates this work which proposes partial coordination, an approach whichincorporates the advantages of computer search with the ability of precoordinationto limit spurious partial matches and thereby enhance precision.