All the right descriptors: A test of the strategy of unlimited aliasing

This study tested the Strategy of Unlimited Aliasing, an indexing method that places the terms suggested by several different indexers for the same information object in one index. This study aggregated the descriptors given to 21 bibliographic records from three databases: (a) ERIC, the database of educational materials compiled by the Educational Resources Information Center; (b) LISA, the database of library and information science abstracts published by the Library Association; and (c) ISA, the database of library and information science abstracts published by IFI/Plenum Data Company. The experimental subjects were 40 graduate students of a school of library and information science. The subjects matched bibliographic records with descriptors in seven different indexes that ranged from impoverished to enriched. No support for the Strategy of Unlimited Aliasing was found. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.