Definition
Summarization systems generate condensed outputs that convey important information contained in one or more sources for particular users and tasks. In principle, input sources and system outputs are not limited to text (e.g., keyframe extraction for video summarization), but this entry focuses exclusively on generating textual summaries from textual sources.
Historical Background
Summarization has a long history dating back to the 1960s, when researchers first started developing computer systems that processed natural language [6,12]. Following a number of decades with comparatively few publications, summarization research entered a new phase in the 1990s. A revival of interest was spurred by the growing availability of text in electronic formats and later the World Wide Web. The enormous quantities of information people come into contact with on a daily basis created a need for...
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Lin, J. (2009). Summarization. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_953
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