In this paper, we are presenting two programs for generating POPSI entries, in which the first program is general in its application, in the sense that the input
codes decide the formation of entries especially the context terms and the second, which does not take any extra codes at the input and formulates the entries accord-
ing to a single rule

Balasubramanian, V.

Devadason, F.J.

Rao, B. Nageswara

English

Librarians' Digital Library

DST SEMINAR ON 
Application of Computers to Bibliographical 
Information Processing : Some Developments in India 
(Bangalore)(10-13 July 1978) 
SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR THE GENERATION 
OF POPSI ENTRIES USING COMPUTER 
F J DEVADASON, V BALASUBRAMANIAN and B NAGESWARA RAO, 
Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statis-
tical Institute, Bangalore-1. 
0 INTRODUCTION 
Postulate-based Permuted Subject Indexing (POPSI) is 
an Indexing procedure helpful in; 
1) Formulating subject headings; 
2) Deriving subject index entries for a catalogue 
and index to a book, etc; 
3) Determining the subject of reader's query in a 
consistent and helpful way; 
A) Formulating a strategy for searching information 
about a subject in a catalogue or other surro-
gate filer 
5) Deriving a base for the presentation of ideas 
in the text of a document (3); and 
6) Formulating subject representation for the pre-
paration of coded input for the generation of 
thesaurus. 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
This procedure is based on S R Ranganathan's 
General Theory of Library Classification as 
modified and improved upon from time to time (1 ,2). 
1 CCMPUTERIZATION OF POPSI 
Computer programs for the generation of POPSI were 
developed by IK 'Ravichandra Rao, the latest version of 
which first reads in a parameter card giving the diffe-
rent indicator digits used in the POPSI string to help 
identify each of the descriptors. Then it reads in the 
full POPSI string and constructs a table of 60 entries 
(Lead Table) each entry having 3 fields of 3 character 
length. The first field in each entry in the table is 
used to point to "Lead Term", the second field to point 
to the preceding or principal facet of the Lead Term and 
_the third field to point to the preceding facet when the 
Lead Term is a speciator. After constructing Lead Table, 
using the pointer in field 1 of the first entry, the Lead 
Term is brought into an area called FIRST-DESCRIPTORS. 
Similarly, using the pointers available in fields 2 and 
3, the corresponding descriptors are brought into areas 
called SECOND-DESCRIPTORS and THIRD-DESCRIPTORS. If 
any of these descriptors have '< ' (less than sign), 
used to indicate higher order levels of concepts or ' = ' 
(equal to sign), used to indicate speciator of kind 2, 
then the descriptors are inverted and stored back in 
the respective areas (SECOND-DESCRIPTORS, THIRD-
DESCRIPTORS ). 
A facet from the FIRST-DESCRIPTORS is brought into 
2 
Computerisation of POPSI 
another area called BUFFA. Then descriptors from SECOND-
DESCRIPTORS and THIRD-DESCRIPTORS ,are attached to the 
facet and stored in two different areas called BUFFB and 
BUFFC. The Lead Term Section thus constructed in BUFFC 
is attached with the 'Short Display' formed in another 
area called SHORT-DISP and written onto a magnetic tape 
along with the 'Reference Section' containing the refe-
rence number. The next facet from the FIRST-DESCRIPTORS 
is brought into BUFFA and the cycle is repeated for all 
the facets in it. A detailed algorithm for these steps 
is given by IK Ravichandra Rao (4). 
2 SCOPE OF THE PAPER 
Certain modifications in generating the entries have 
been suggested by A Neelameghan and Mr MA Gopinath 
and the procedure is being improved upon to make it more 
efficient. The modifications suggested mainly 
deal with which term(s) should form the context term(s) 
of a particular Lead Term. When the rule for deciding 
this changes, the program written should also be changed 
if it incorporates the rule for the decision within Its 
algorithm. If a program is written in such a way that 
this decision is done by the indexer and coded at the 
input stage and the program written follows the coded 
rules, then modifications in indexing may not affect the 
program developed. But input preparation will be slightly 
more difficult. It should be noted here that PRECIS 
follows this approach, in the sense that all the diffe-
rent rules required to manipulate a particular term in a 
'string' are input as codes along with the terra forming 
the string. 
3 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
In this paper, we are presenting two programs for 
generating POPSI entries, in which the first program is 
general in its application, in the sense that the input 
codes decide the formation of entries especially the 
context terms and the second, which does not take any 
extra codes at the input and formulates the entries accord-
ing to a single rule. 
3 INPUT CODE BASED METHOD 
31 Input Data 
Each of the facets/speciators forming a POPSI string 
is separately punched each onto a separate card along 
with codes to denote the Round, Facet, Level, the dumber 
of lower order levels of facets, speciator Kind 1 or 
Kind 2 of the term(s) concerned and the codes of the 
preceding term fit to form the context term as decided 
by the indexer. 
32 Input Format 
The input format consists of two fields. Column 1 
to 10 is the 'Codes Field' and Columns 11 to 50 is the 
'Term Field'. The Codes Field has two sub-fields. 
1) the codes for the Term (R1L1F1H1), and 
2) the codes for the Context Term (R2L2F2H2) 
(See Fig 2). The details of the input format are given 
in Fig 1 giving the card designs. The end of an input 
string is denoted by a card having three asterisks in 
columns 1, 2 and 3 and the reference or index number 
4 
Computerisation of POPSI 
from columns 51 to 80. A sample list of input cards is 
given in Fig 3. 
33 Procedure 
• The algorithm for generation of POPSI using the in-
put cards in the format described above is very simple. 
It consists of only three distinct steps, namely: 
• 
1) Term Table building; 
2) Short-display formation; and 
3) Lead and context term(c) generation. 
331 Term-Table Building 
Each card is read and stored in a table conse-* 
cutively by incrementing the index value of the table 
element for each card. When three asterisks are sensed 
in columns 1 to 3 of a card, then Term-Table building is 
terminated and the index/reference/class number in the 
asterisked card is stored in a separate location called 
REF-NO. The total number of cards built in the Term-
Table is also stored in another location N and also WN. 
332 Short-Display Formation 
The short-display is formed of all the lowest level 
descriptors in each of the facet. • This is easily done 
by selecting those descriptors having a ' o' in column 4 
(subfield H1). This short-display is stored in the 
memory location SHORT-DISP. 
333 Lead and Context Term(s) Generation 
Provision has been made in the program for accommo-
5 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
dating three different context term(s) for a particular 
lead term. A synonym can occur as a lead term, but not 
as a context term. 
The generation starts from the bottom of the table 
(the last entry in the table) using the total number of 
cards (N) stored in the Term-Table as index. Some of 
the steps in generating the entries from the Term-Table 
are given below: 
1. Move 1 to X. 
2. Move N (Number of cards stored in the Term 
Table) to Y, WN (If a string has 10 cards ex-
cluding the '3 star' card, then N = Y = 10). 
3. Move the term in the Yth entry in the Term-
Table to Xth term position in the LEAD CONTEXT 
area . If the term has '/' in subfield H1 go to 
step 8. 
4. Store the codes for the Context Term R2F2L2 H2 
in C-C. 
5. Depending upon the code in subfield F2 indicat-
ing the fundamental category, put , in 
the LEAD-CONTEXT, and a blank if the term is 
a Basic Subject speciator. 
6. Add 1 to X. 
7. If X > k (LEAD-CONTEXT area has provision for 
one Lead Term and 3 Context Terms) go to Step 12; 
else 
8. Subtract 1 from Y. 
9. If Y<.1, go to step 12; else 
10. Compare C-C with codes for the Lead Term R1F1L1H1 
Computerisation of POPSI 
of the Yth entry in the Term-Table (Y is decre-
mented in step 8). 
1.1 If it matches, go to step 3; else go to step 8. 
12. Move blank to the recently inserted comma 
(as this is the last term in 
the LEAD-CONTEXT). 
13. Attach LEAD-CONTEXT with SHORT-DISP and REF-NO. 
14. Write the index entry on to tape. 
15. Move 0 to X. 
16. If WN < 1, stop execution; else 
17. Subtract 1 from WN. 
18. Move WN to Y. Go to step 3. 
A set of generated entries following this procedure 
are given in the Appendix A . 
4 RULE INCORPORATED METHOD 
41 Input Data 
As in the previous method, each of the facets/ 
speciators forming a POPSI string is separately punched, 
each on to a card along with the codes to denote Round, 
Facet, Level, the number of lower order levels of facets, 
speciator kind 1 or kind 2 of the term(s) concerned; 
without any codes for the Context Term for it. The input 
format is the same as that for the previous method 
except that the second subfield (R2F2L2H2) in the Codes 
Field is not used. A sample list of input cards is 
given in Figure 4. 
7 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
4Z Procedure 
The procedure for generating the different entries 
is the same as that of the previous method for Term-Table 
building and Short-Display formation. The procedure for 
formation of the Lead and Context Term(s) is done accord-
ing to the following rule. For a given term kept in the 
lead the immediately preceding facet/speciator term(s) 
belonging to the lowest level upto a maximum of three 
(i.e. immediately preceding terms having '0' in subfield 
H1) are formed as Context Terms. This rule is not in 
accordance with the current practice in POPSI, but we 
feel that this will give a more specific Lead Section 
entry than that in the current practice of making the 
context the immediately preceding facet and not facet/ 
speciator. 
A list of generated entries following this procedure 
is given in the Appendix-B. 
5 PRINTING THE ENTRIES 
The generated entries could be sorted using the 
sort program available in the computer system and printed 
using a print program 'POPRINT' developed for this pur-
pose. It has an option which is selected by a control 
card to indicate whether the class number/reference 
number in each index entry is to be right justified or 
left justified. 
8 
Compute r i sa t ion of POPSl 
6 CONCLUSION 
It is possible to write a program to generate the 
input format for the 'Rule incorporated method' directly 
from POPSI strings, provided all the indicators are 
given in the string. It is also desirable to have many 
routines, each incorporating a set of rules and select the 
options as required. Though the 'input code based 
method' is general in its application, it solely depends 
on the input codes and leaves the burden of deciding 
about the entries to the indexer. In the case of a 
synonymous term (indicated by a '/' in subfield H1) an 
entry is generated using it as Lead Term. Instead, 
a 'See' reference entry could be generated. Provision 
should be made to either include or exclude the basic subject 
term in the lead/context. We hope these two methods 
described are quite simple and useful. The programs are 
written in IBM Cobol and are raw and require further 
refinements. 
7 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
We are grateful to Prof A Neelameghan for his en-
couragement and guidance in the development of these 
programs. 
8 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 
1. BHATTACHARYYA (G) . POPSI: Fundamentals and pro-
cedure. (Paper presented at the DRTC Annual Seminar 
on Subject Indexing. Dec 1975). 
9 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
NEELAMEGHAN (A) and GOPINATH (M A). POPSI in 
practice. (Paper presented at the DRTC Annual 
Seminar on Subject Indexing. Dec 1975). 
NEELAMEGHAN (A) and GOPINATH (M A). Postulate-
based Permuted Subject Indexing (POPSI). (Lib Sc. 
12; 1975 Sept; p 79). 
RAVICHANDRA RAO (I K). Computerisation of POPSI. 
(Lib Sc. 13; 1976 Sept-Dec. Paper J). 
10 
Computerisation of POPSI 
CARD DESIGN 1 
Serial 
Number 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
Number 
Charac-
10 
40 
23 
5 
1 
of 
ters 
Card 
Columns 
1-10 
11-50 
51-74 
75-79 
80 
CARD DESIGN 2 
Serial Number of Card 
Number Characters Columns 
1 
2 
3 
3 
47 
30 
1-3 
4-50 
51-80 
Description Remarks 
Codes 
Descriptors (terms) 
Blank 
Serial Number 
Sequence Number 
Description Remarks 
' X X 
Blank 
Access 
Class 
x ' 
Number/ 
Number/ 
Reference Number 
Figure 1 : Input Format 
Codes F i e l d fo r Term 
R1 F1 L1 H1 R2 
Codes Field for Context 
F2 B B 
Terms Fie ld 
Descriptors from full 
version of POPSI string 
Level indicator 
Face t i n d i c a t o r . 0 = BS, 1 = P, 2 = MM, 3= MP, 
4 = E, e t c 
Round I n d i c a t o r : Same as fo r R1, 
Speciator Indicator. 1 = Speciator of kind 1. 
2 = Speciator of kind 2, etc 
Hierarchy Indicator of the term. Indicates how many subordinate 
terms (UTS) to it consecutively occur in the string 
Level indicator. 1= First level. 2 - Second level. 
Facet indicator : Same as for F2. Round indicator. 1 = First round 2 = Socond round, etc. 
Fig 2 : INPUT CODING DETAILS 
Left blank 
Left blank 
Level indicator. 1 = First level, 2 = Second level. 
S1 
Computerisation of POPSI 
Codes Field Term Field 
For Term For Context 
R1 F1 L1 H1 S1 R2 F2 L2 B B 
0 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
* 
0 
1 
1 
1 
3 
4 
4 
* 
0 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
* 
0 
2 
1 
0 
1 
2 
1 
0 
0 
/ 
3 
2 
1 
0 
-
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
0 
0 
0 
1 
1 
1 
1 
-
1 
1 
1 
1 
i 
0 
0 
0 
1 
3 
3 
1 
-
4 
A 
4 
4 
0 
0 
0 
1 
.1 
1 
1 
, 
1 
1 
1 
1 
MEDICINE 
HUMAN BODY 
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM 
LUNG 
DISEASE 
BACTERIA 
MYCOBACTERIUM 
TUBERCULOSIS 
TREATMENT 
THERAPY 
CHEMICAL 
BIOSUBSTANCE: 
DRUG 
ANTIBIOTIC 
5945 
Fig 3 : Sample Input Cards 
13 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
R1 F1 
0 0. 
1 1 
1 1 
1 1 
1 3 
1 4 
1 4 
* * 
L1 
0 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
* 
Hi 
0 
2 
1 
0 
0 
1 
1 
0 
0 
/ 
3 
2 
1 
0 
S 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
R2 F2 L2 H2 B 
MEDICINE 
HUMAN BODY 
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM 
LUNG 
DISEASE 
BACTERIA 
MYCOBACTERIUM 
TUBERCULOSIS 
TREATMENT 
THERAPY 
CHEMICAL 
BIOSUBSTANCE 
DRUG 
ANTIBIOTIC 
5945 
Fig 4 : Input Cards 
14 
Computerisation of POPSI 
APPENDIX - A 
ANTIBIOTIC- TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis: Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
BACTERIA DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis-.Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
BIOSUBSTANCE TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
CHEMICAL TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis 
Antibiotic 5945 
DRUG TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE 
Medicine, Lung: Disease-Tuberculosis 
Antibiotic 5945 
HUMAN BODY, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis ; Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
15 
: Treatment-
; Treatment-
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosic : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
MYCOBACTERIUM DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung.; Disease-Tuberculosis ; Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
THERAPY, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE, LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE, LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis . Treaxment-
Antibiotic 5945 
TU. ERCULOSIS DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Disease-Tuberculosis : Treatment-
Antibiotic 5945 
C o m p u t e r i s a t i o n of POPSI 
APPENDIX - B. 
ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
BACTERIA DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
BIOSUBSTANCE TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
CHEMICAL TREATMENT, 'TUBERCULOSIS LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
medicine. Lung; Tuberculosis; Treatment-Antibiotic* 5945 
DRUG TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis; Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
HUMAN; BODY, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis; Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicines Lung; Tuberculosis; Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
MYCOBACTERIUM DISEASE, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis. Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
THERAPY, TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung: Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 5945 
17 
Devadason, Balasubramanian and Nageswara Rao 
TREATMENT, TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 
TUBERCULOSIS, LUNG, MEDICINE 
Medicine, Lung; Tuberculosis: Treatment-Antibiotic 
15 


Simplified procedures for the generation of POPSI entries using computer

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Simplified procedures for the generation of POPSI entries using computer

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