REVIEW OF The ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH: 2. Information and its Retrieval Available to Purchase

My task in this second introductory paper is to attempt a review of the research that has been undertaken in relation to the retrieval of information. It is some twenty years ago that the term ‘information retrieval’ was first used, reputedly by Calvin Mooers, although it was several years later before it became a generally accepted term. It would be absurd to suggest that there was no such thing as information retrieval before the term was coined, but it is useful to consider it as marking a new approach to a problem that had always existed, but which had become very much more serious in consequence of the great increase in scientific and technical literature during and after World War II.