In memoriam Robert Fugmann

Dr. Robert Fugmann is known for his research in the field of subject analysis and indexing of documents. For Hoechst AG Werke, he developed the GREMAS system, an analysis and retrieval system based on precise molecular structures in preparative organic chemistry. Later he developed the TOSAR system (Topological rendering of synthetic and analytical relations of concepts). He was the initiator of the Chemical Information Section in the Society of German Chemists and its chairman for several years, for which he also published the newsletter for many years. He was co-initiator of the Committee for Classification and Thesaurus Research of the German Society for Documentation (DGD), founded in 1965, and a founding member of the German Society for Classification, founded in 1977, and its deputy chairman until 1986. In 1989 he was involved in the establishment of the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO), of which he was vice president until 1998. In 2004 he was a founding member of the German Indexer Network (DNI). In 1982 he received the Herman Skolnik Prize from the American Chemical Society. In 1994 he was granted the Ranganathan Award for Classification Research as the 6th recipient and in 2006 the International Kaula Gold Medal and Citation Award as the 23rd recipient.

Robert Fugmann was born on January 11, 1927 in Moehrenbach, Germany as son of Alfred Fugmann and his wife Elly (nee Thomas). He studied chemestry in Jena, Wuerzburg and Hamburg. In 1951 he obtained his doctor of philosophy in chemistry from the Hamburg University, Germany. 1952-1959 he was Research Chemist at Hoechst AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Then 1960-1987 he was head of the scientific information department of Hoechst. He was lecturer at the Society of German Chemists, at the DGD's Documentation Institute, at the universities of applied sciences in Darmstadt and Hanover, and, since 1990, at the university of technology TU Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany. In summer 1992 and fall 1993 he was visiting professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

His theoretical foundation was the classification theory of S. R. Ranganathan. Robert Fugmann was able to show that this approach was suitable for creating order in the concept systems, and he developed his own theoretical approaches, such as the "Five-Axiom Theory of Indexing and Information Supply", which was awarded the Best Journal ASIS Paper 1985 by the American Society for Information Science (ASIS). These 5 axioms are as follows:

1. Axiom of Definability (Compilation of information requires a topic be defined)
2. Axiom of Order (Compilation of information includes order-creating)
3. Axiom of Sufficient Degree of Order (With the size of a collection the demands on the degree of order increases)
4. Axiom of Predictability (The success of information research depends on the predictability of expressions in the search file)
5. Axiom of Fidelity (The success of information research depends on the fidelity with expressions in the search file).

For indexing he claimed the Rule of the Most Appropriate Descriptor by Charles Cutter (1876), who demanded that "the convenience of the user should be preferred to the ease of the cataloguer".

Selected literature

Dahlberg, I. (2002). Dr. Robert Fugmann wurde 75. IWP 53 (2), 115

Fallert-Müller, A. & Greulich, W. (Deutsches Netzwerk der Indexer) (2013). Von der Literaturdokumentation zum Indexing: Ein Interview mit Dr. Robert Fugmann zu seinen Erfahrungen und Einsichten einer langen Beschäftigung mit der Inhaltserschließung von Dokumenten. Available at: https://d-indexer.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Interview_Robert_Fugmann.pdf

Fugmann, R. (2004). Learning the Lessons of the Past. In: W. B. Rayward & M. E. Bowden (eds.). The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems: Proceedings of the 2002 Conference (ASIS & Monograph Series), 168-181. Medford, New Jersey: Information Today. Presentation available at: https://www.tuhh.de/b/hapke/ispg/Fugmann.pdf

Fugmann, R. (1985). The Five-Axiom Theory of Indexing and Information Supply. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 36 (2), 116-129.

Fugmann, R . (1980). On the practice of indexing and its theoretical foundations. International Classification 7 (1), 13-20

Fugmann, R. (1994). Book indexing: the classificatory approach. In: Knowledge Organization 24, no. 4, 205-212

Fugmann, R . (1993). Subject analysis and indexing: theoretical foundation and practical advice (Textbooks for knowledge organization 1). Frankfurt: Indeks

H.-Peter Ohly