Herbert Marvin Ohlman
Encyclopedia
Herbert Marvin Ohlman (1927–2002) is the inventor of permutation indexing, or Permuterm and is one of the pioneers of Information Science and Technology. He has been recognized and included in the Pioneers of Information Science in North America Project by ASIS.
Permuterm is known one of the first successful punch card indexing systems, and is still referenced today in the data indexing field. Ohlman published a variety of papers on Permuterm and other Information Science and Technology and communication topics, which are now at the Charles Babbage Institute
at The University of Minnesota.
wasted space on most of the cards.
Ohlman developed a system using IBM punch cards and tabulating machines that used one punch card for every document title, with significant title words on each card. The cards were sorted and run through a printer to produce the final result. Ohlman named this result a "permutation index" (or Permuterm for short) because the words went through a cyclic permutation process.
The first actual permutation index was issued later that year as a subject guide to SAGE programming documents—based on 1,800 documents (2/3 from the Lincoln Laboratory).
In 1958 Ohlman submitted a paper titled "Subject-word letter frequencies with applications to superimposed coding" to the International Conference on Scientific Information (ICSI) in Washington, DC. The paper was accepted by the chairman of
Section 5, Hans Peter Luhn
.
At the conference, Ohlman saw the "perfect way to demonstrate the speed and automation features of permutation indexing to information science and technology colleagues." He presented a mechanically produced index (using IBM punch cards) to conference pre-print papers. For his presentation, entries were selected not just from titles, but also author names and affiliations, headings, captions, sentences, and even phrases selected for their significance as thought units.
(working with IBM
) distributed his paper titled "Bibliography and index: Literature on information retrieval and machine translation", which contained "titles indexed by Key Words-in-Context system", or KWIC.
While the appearance of the printed indexes were practically identical, Ohlman's index was produced entirely with IBM tabulating machines. Luhn's system used punched cards only for input, converted the data to punched-paper tape, and used a computer to produce the final index.
According to some sources, Ohlman's work preceded Luhn's work on KWIC. "Luhn's term for the approach happened to be more "catchy" and stuck but Ohlman's work was just as important, and possibly preceded Luhn's work on KWIC," says Robert
V. Williams, Professor and Director of the Office of Research, College of Mass communication and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina
.
SIG Education for Information Science (served from 1966–1977) and the Chairman for the ASIS SIG on Information Retention (1967). He also chaired several other SIGs during his career, as well as having numerous papers published on Information Science and communication. He worked for a variety of companies, including:
He was also a consultant in information science and technology for the World Health Organization
in Geneva, Switzerland.
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ssoy/organizing/l391d2c.htm
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/ISP/ohlman.htm
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/ISP/ohlman2.htm
http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/cbi00179.xml
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10866&page=903
http://www.chemheritage.org/explore/ASIS_documents/ASIS98_Ohlman.pdf
Permuterm is known one of the first successful punch card indexing systems, and is still referenced today in the data indexing field. Ohlman published a variety of papers on Permuterm and other Information Science and Technology and communication topics, which are now at the Charles Babbage Institute
Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
at The University of Minnesota.
Permuterm
Ohlman first started work on information indexing in 1957 (working for SDC) when he noticed the peek-a-boo (coordinate) indexing system that searched for documents at the Lincoln LaboratoryLincoln Laboratory
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and development activities focus on long-term technology development as well as...
wasted space on most of the cards.
Ohlman developed a system using IBM punch cards and tabulating machines that used one punch card for every document title, with significant title words on each card. The cards were sorted and run through a printer to produce the final result. Ohlman named this result a "permutation index" (or Permuterm for short) because the words went through a cyclic permutation process.
The first actual permutation index was issued later that year as a subject guide to SAGE programming documents—based on 1,800 documents (2/3 from the Lincoln Laboratory).
In 1958 Ohlman submitted a paper titled "Subject-word letter frequencies with applications to superimposed coding" to the International Conference on Scientific Information (ICSI) in Washington, DC. The paper was accepted by the chairman of
Section 5, Hans Peter Luhn
Hans Peter Luhn
Hans Peter Luhn was a computer scientist for IBM, and creator of the Luhn algorithm and KWIC indexing. He was awarded over 80 patents....
.
At the conference, Ohlman saw the "perfect way to demonstrate the speed and automation features of permutation indexing to information science and technology colleagues." He presented a mechanically produced index (using IBM punch cards) to conference pre-print papers. For his presentation, entries were selected not just from titles, but also author names and affiliations, headings, captions, sentences, and even phrases selected for their significance as thought units.
KWIC
At the same time, Hans Peter LuhnHans Peter Luhn
Hans Peter Luhn was a computer scientist for IBM, and creator of the Luhn algorithm and KWIC indexing. He was awarded over 80 patents....
(working with IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
) distributed his paper titled "Bibliography and index: Literature on information retrieval and machine translation", which contained "titles indexed by Key Words-in-Context system", or KWIC.
While the appearance of the printed indexes were practically identical, Ohlman's index was produced entirely with IBM tabulating machines. Luhn's system used punched cards only for input, converted the data to punched-paper tape, and used a computer to produce the final index.
According to some sources, Ohlman's work preceded Luhn's work on KWIC. "Luhn's term for the approach happened to be more "catchy" and stuck but Ohlman's work was just as important, and possibly preceded Luhn's work on KWIC," says Robert
V. Williams, Professor and Director of the Office of Research, College of Mass communication and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
.
Other Notable Work
Ohlman was the founding Chairman of the American Society for Information Science and TechnologyAmerican Society for Information Science and Technology
The American Society for Information Science and Technology, sometimes abbreviated ASIS&T or ASIST, is a non-profit membership organization for information professionals...
SIG Education for Information Science (served from 1966–1977) and the Chairman for the ASIS SIG on Information Retention (1967). He also chaired several other SIGs during his career, as well as having numerous papers published on Information Science and communication. He worked for a variety of companies, including:
- Battelle (1955–1957)
- SDC (1957–1960)
- Lockheed (1960–1961)
- IBM (1961–1962)
- Itek (1963–1964)
- Xerox (1964–1967)
- Cemrel (1967–1969)
He was also a consultant in information science and technology for the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sources
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3991/is_200208/ai_n9115623/pg_1http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~ssoy/organizing/l391d2c.htm
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/ISP/ohlman.htm
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/ISP/ohlman2.htm
http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/cbi00179.xml
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10866&page=903
http://www.chemheritage.org/explore/ASIS_documents/ASIS98_Ohlman.pdf