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An index (plural: usually indexes, see below) is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document or on a page. In a traditional back-of-the-book index the headings will include names of people, places and events, and concepts selected by a person as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. The pointers are typically page numbers, paragraph numbers or section numbers. In a library catalog the words are authors, titles, subject headings, etc., and the pointers are call numbers. Internet search engines, such as Google, and full text searching help provide access to information but are not as selective as an index, as they provide non-relevant links, and may miss relevant information if it is not phrased in exactly the way they expect. Perhaps the most advanced investigation of problems related to book indexes is made in the development of topic maps, which started as a way of representing the knowledge structures inherent in traditional back-of-the-book indexes. ==Earliest examples in English== In the English language, indexes have been referred to as early as 1593, as can be seen from lines in Christopher Marlowe's ''Hero and Leander'' of that year: ''Therefore, even as an index to a book'' ''So to his mind was young Leander's look.'' A similar reference to indexes is in Shakespeare's lines from ''Troilus and Cressida'' (I.3.344), written nine years later: ''And in such indexes, although small pricks'' ''To their subsequent volumes, there is seen'' ''The baby figure of the giant mass'' ''Of things to come at large.'' But according to G. Norman Knight, "at that period, as often as not, by an 'index to a book' was meant what we should now call a table of contents."〔Knight, G. Norman (1979) ''Indexing, the Art of: A Guide to the Indexing of Books and Periodicals'' (HarperCollins), pp. 17–18〕 Among the first indexes – in the modern sense – to a book in the English language was one in Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives'', in Sir Thomas North's 1595 translation.〔 A section entitled "An Alphabetical Table of the most material contents of the whole book" may be found in Henry Scobell's ''Acts and Ordinances of Parliament'' of 1658. This section comes after "An index of the general titles comprised in the ensuing Table".〔 Both of these indexes predate the index to Alexander Cruden's ''Concordance'' (1737), which is erroneously held to be the earliest index found in an English book.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Index (publishing)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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