Providing access to collected works

How are the boundaries of information objects to be defined in the networked electronic environment and what is the role of our retrieval systems in providing access where these boundaries are uncertain? The authors consider these questions in light of longstanding problems surrounding the definition of the “work” in the print environment. In particular, they examine the role of the index in providing access to the collected works of the individual writer. They review the discussion in the indexing literature of the “long index,” and the close relationship between the functions of indexer and editor in collected works projects. And they treat the role of the index in constituting as a self-contained corpus the disparate types of text that make up a writer's lifetime output. Finally, by way of example, the authors turn to the extensive indexes to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic writings.