The applicability of natural language processing (NLP) to archival properties and objectives

Abstract

Natural language processing (NLP) is an extremely powerful operation-one that takes advantage of electronic text and the computer's computational capabilities, which surpass human speed and consistency. How does NLP affect archival operations in the electronic environment? This article introduces archivists to NLP with a presentation of the NLP Continuum and a description of the Archives Axiom, which is supported by an analysis of archival properties and objectives. An overview of the basic information retrieval (IR) framework is provided and NLP's application to the electronic archival environment is discussed. The analysis concludes that while NLP offers advantages for indexing and accessing electronic archives, its incapacity to understand records and recordkeeping systems results in serious limitations for archival operations.