I have recently learned enough about library science to make me glad I went
into electrical engineering :). This is a pretty sticky (and thereby
interesting) problem! You can certainly hack something together, but some
study of the literature (as Dan noted) will likely be greatly useful.
If minimal index size is not a consideration, you should also spend time
looking at full-text indexing systems rather than using keywords in META
tags. Back in 1971, Gerard Salton proved that a properly constructed
full-text search system could provide better retrieval capabilities than the
best keyword indexed system (ref.
<URL:http://cs-tr.cs.cornell.edu:80/Dienst/UI/2.0/Describe/ncstrl.cornell%2f
TR71-115?abstract=salton>, "A New Comparison Between Conventional Indexing
(MEDLARS) and Automatic Text Processing (SMART)", Gerard Salton, Cornell
Computer Science Technical Report TR71-115). Unfortunately, the whole world
has not yet caught up to the state of the art in 1971...
What looks to be a good book on these subjects (unfortunately still in my
to-be-read pile) is Gerard Salton's _Automatic Text Processing_,
Addison-Wesley, 1989, ISBN 0-201-12227-8.
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Mark Leighton Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@indy.tce.com Indianapolis, IN