Documentary Information, Processing of

the process of analytic and synthetic study of documents (texts) and the preparation of secondary information that reflects the most substantive elements of the documents’ contents. The most common forms of presenting the results of documentary information processing are bibliographic description, annotation, abstract, synopsis, and survey. In addition, processing may take the form of indexing, extraction of basic data from documents, abridgment of a text (with relative retention of the meaning of the data), or presentation of the information in a form better suited for storage and retrieval.

In a general sense, the processing of documentary information also includes translation of texts. Experiments are being conducted on the automation of the processing of documentary information through automatic indexing and annotation. The processing of a document involving a change or substitution of the physical data carrier, particularly reproduction, should be distinguished from the processing of documentary information. Reproduction is a process of copying individual texts or images or producing new copies of documents that are identical to the original. Reproduction is one of the basic processes of a data service. A distinction is made between single-copy and multiple-copy reproduction.

The main forms of reproduction are photocopying and microfilming, diazo copying, thermal copying, and electrographic copying. Special types of reproduction are projection of the reproduced image on a screen (for example, on a microfilm reader) and recording on magnetic tapes and punched cards.