This article discusses some of the intellectual issues involved in the
indexing of visual or pictorial images, postulating that the indexing
of images should provide access to images based on the attributes of
those images, and provide access to useful groupings of images, not si
mply access to individual images. The attributes of images can be divi
ded into four categories: ''Biographical'' attributes, Subject attribu
tes, Exemplified attributes, and Relationship attributes. When creatin
g groupings of images, it is important to consider the following issue
s or questions: When should the grouping occur? What are the groupings
based on? What level of detail is necessary? and What groupings will
be useful? More research is needed into the ways images are sought and
the reasons that they are useful.