Mortimer Taub

Who is Mortimer Taub?

Taube founded Documentation, Inc. (Doc Inc) in 1951-52?. Lilley-Trice quote Wilfred Lancaster (p.19): "There is little doubt that the real impetus to modern methods of information retrieval was given by Mortimer Taube...". They say the "significant" contribution was breaking with traditional information systems such as the UDC and LC Classification System. Wilfred Lancaster considers Taube's great contribution to be the computer-based Uniterm system of subject retrieval. He was editor, American Documentation 1952-53.

Current Biography calls him the "Dewey of mid-twentieth century librarianship." Taube gave coordinate indexing and uniterms currency and practical applicability. He pioneered development of information retrieval systems. Taube was among the first to advocate standardizing procedures and coordinating efforts of information services which would be helpful for all agencies and for users. He investigated subject analysis, the coding of subject terms, and their relationship to information retrieval.