Heading

Co-Extensive Headings in Legal Information Retrieval

The following is a basic concept of Co-Extensive Headings in relation to information retrieval. In addition to this, Co-Extensive Headings may be applied to legal texts, including case law, legislation and scholarly works. See statement/heading specificity.

Heading in Legal Information Retrieval

The following is a basic concept of Heading in relation to information retrieval. In addition to this, Heading may be applied to legal texts, including case law, legislation and scholarly works. In displayed indexes (indexes that are designed for visual inspection by humans as opposed to non-displayed indexes that are searched by computer algorithm), index terms are combined into headings consisting of multiple terms. It is possible to have index headings with only single terms, but headings of two or more terms are more meaningful, because the lead term is modified or amplified or described by the subsequent term or terms. The subsequent term or terms create a context for the first, or lead, term. Compare, for example, the meaning of the simple heading United States versus the more detailed meaning of United States — history — civil war — bibliography. In the second heading, United States has been modified or defined by aspect or approach (history), event or period (civil war), and format (bibliography). An index heading is an essential part of an index entry. When displayed indexes are displayed in classified rather than alphanumeric order, the headings are often called captions.