Penstation: Easy Access to Relevant Facts without Retrieving

In this paper, we propose a document-preparation environment integrated with text-retrieval in the frame work of seamless digital network library. We often write documents on a word processor while referring to other text-files on personal files , group files and much open information resources like libraries and information serviced on digital network as well as books, papers and printed matters. Much of information has been already on disks and networks so that tedious looking-up work of books and paper dictionary is largely reduced with mouse clicks or key strokes for retrieving digital information resources . But there are still difficulties in referring along with writing documents on computer: (1)The acts such as key operations, mouse operations for file retrieval and(/or) book consultation for detecting relevant references interrupt users’ concentration on how to express what they have in their heads, (2)No practical way to find location of information is available although users know surely there exists a vast volume of indispensable information for explicating their ideas somewhere, (3)Unconsciousness of existence of useful information can not invoke users’ request of information retrieval. To solve these problems, we propose an integrated system to realize the automatic and low-cost index acquisition and documentation support environment by utilizing rich indexes acquired during writing documents. This environment encourages users’ building ideas by low-cost presentation of document components collected from personal, group and open information resources. A sophisticated idea building environment has been realized based on the concept of episodic indexes and citation indexes for consulting easily personal and group document bases. It is also supported by functional retrieving mechanism of much larger volume of text data base. These establishes a new environment integrated with episode indexing which enables the total utilization of both known in personal and group files, and unknown and new information in open data base.