Synopsis
Information retrieval is a communication process that links the information user to a librarian, museum curator, fingerprint identification specialist, or whoever is in charge of a collection of what we are calling documents. The communication will normally involve the processing of text, strings of words known to both parties in the process that can be used to describe a document's content and other attributes and link it with a need expressed in similar terms. This book's purpose is to teach people who will be searching or designing text retrieval systems how the systems work. For designers, it covers problems they will face and reviews currently available solutions to provide a basis for more advanced study. For the searcher its purpose is to describe why such systems work as they do. The book is primarily about computer-based retrieval systems, but the principles apply to nonmechanized ones as well. The book covers the nature of information, how it is organized for use by a computer, how search functions are carried out, and some of the theory underlying these functions. As well, it discusses the interaction between user and system and how retrieved items, users, and complete systems are evaluated. A limited knowledge of mathematics and of computing is assumed. The first edition of this work appeared just before the World Wide Web came on the scene, but was nonetheless a student favorite because of its clarity. The new edition is updated and expanded, covering not only the Web but also new developments in how IR systems are or could be designed. It helps users understand why things happen the way they do and thus aids users in designing new systems, evaluating systems before use, and teaching or using IR systems. It provides an understanding of basic principles so that users may read, understand, and evaluate detailed works such as the many research papers on this topic. It explains complex mathematical models so that readers may become familiar with the underlying mathematical concepts of IR systems.
About the Author
Charles T. Meadow, professor emeritus, University of Toronto, and has been visiting professor at the Universities of North Carolina and the West Indies. He edited the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and the Canadian Journal of Information Science and was president of the Canadian Association for Information Science. Received Research Award and shared Annual Information Science Book Award from ASIS&T. Bert Boyce has been an Information System Research Analyst, for the Information Systems Office, at the Library of Congress, a faculty member and acting Dean of the School of Library and Information Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, and Dean of the School of Library and Information Science, Louisiana State University, where he is now Professor and Dean Emeritus. He is currently Editor of the Academic Press Library and Information Science Series. He received the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award in 1989, and has shared the Annual Information Science Book Award from ASIS&T. Donald Kraft is professor at LSU and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a fellow of IEEE and AAAS and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology He received the Research Award, Watson Davis Award, and shared the Annual Information Science Book Award from ASIS&T and the LSU Distinguished Faculty award.
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