Name Searching and Information Retrieval

TL;DR

This paper explores how recognizing personal names in text can enhance information retrieval systems, demonstrating that effective name recognition improves search accuracy across various domains like legal and news databases.

Contribution

It introduces the application of name recognition to improve information retrieval and analyzes its effectiveness in different document types.

Findings

Name recognition can be effective in text.

Names occur frequently enough to justify recognition.

Name searching improves retrieval performance.

Abstract

The main application of name searching has been name matching in a database of names. This paper discusses a different application: improving information retrieval through name recognition. It investigates name recognition accuracy, and the effect on retrieval performance of indexing and searching personal names differently from non-name terms in the context of ranked retrieval. The main conclusions are: that name recognition in text can be effective; that names occur frequently enough in a variety of domains, including those of legal documents and news databases, to make recognition worthwhile; and that retrieval performance can be improved using name searching.