In an often‐quoted passage from the Bible, the writer of Ecclesiastes reminded us that of making many books there is no end. In the information sciences there is certainly much making of textbooks and of research monographs; and reading through many of them provokes the weariness of the flesh of which the Biblical writer complains. Occasionally, however, a book emerges which is unusually worthwhile, in that it not merely summarises and presents information clearly and helpfully, but also stimulates ideas, and, in an over‐used phrase which is entirely appropriate here, sets a new research agenda, or at least re‐directs an existing one. I believe that this is such a book.
The authors' thesis is quite straightforward. The argue that two significant strands of research within the information sciences have developed in isolation, when they should be integrated and synergistic. These are research into information seeking, stemming from and using the methods of the social sciences, and into information retrieval, stemming from and using the methods of computer science. Ingwersen and Järvelin argue that these research themes should operate together, within a single framework, each benefiting from the others' insights. They go on to suggest how this may be done, using the idea of the context of the seeking and retrieval of information as a unifying factor, and providing a (rather complex) conceptual model to illustrate this.
Although this seems eminently sensible, it would not necessarily be accepted by everyone. Tom Wilson (2006), for example, argues that information retrieval has effectively left the domain of information science, and been absorbed by computer science. Others may consider that these are two such different topics of study and practice that it is not realistic to combine them. Be that as it may, this is a very worthy, and generally convincing, attempt at a synthesis.
The book is divided into eight main chapters. It is very well‐written, references and analyses a great deal of relevant literature, and is particularly strong in presenting – both verbally and graphically – a variety of conceptual models for the various topics. Indeed, it could be recommended, to students in particular, as a source‐book for models in information science.
The first chapter sets the scene, and introduces the main concepts, in a clear and scholarly style which is a hall‐mark of this book. The second gives a thorough and detailed account of the cognitive approach to information behaviour, with which Ingwersen in particular is closely associated. This uses models and diagrams to good effect to clarify some issues which are often rather vaguely described, and includes an interesting interpretation of Popper's three world ontology, to my mind still the most useful single starting point for understanding the phenomena of interest to the information sciences. Chapter three summarises research into information seeking, including the main research used, and gives an exemplary consolidation of the many approaches adopted, again making good use of conceptual models.
Chapter four takes up the second strand of the book, dealing with system‐oriented or laboratory style of information retrieval research, focussing on the TREC experiments, but also encompassing expert system and other artificial intelligence approaches. Again, a very large amount of literature is clearly and authoritatively summarised and evaluated. Chapter five complements this by dealing with cognitive and user‐oriented approaches to retrieval research, again covering research methods and focusing on the thorny issue of the assessment of relevance in a “real” situation. This is also a wide‐ranging summary; though one strand of research not well covered is user‐oriented studies of comparative retrieval from bibliographic databases, of which a number were published through the 1980s and 1990s. Though rather pragmatic in nature, and perhaps not fitting well into the theoretical frameworks being presented here, this research cast light on a number of relevant issues.
Chapter six is very much the heart of the book, as in this chapter what has gone before is integrated into a conceptual framework for information seeking and retrieval research. This results in a detailed model involving a cognitive framework, which allows for changes in cognitive states and consequent activities over time. Necessarily complex, since it must embody the features of a complex process, this would have to expanded by further detailed models of, for example, the social context of the information seeker, and the retrieval process being used. This issue of “models of context” is developed at length. This struck me as the least convincing aspect the treatment; despite the ingenuity of the authors in proposing typologies and categorisations to describe various aspects of their meta‐theoretical treatment, these introduce a degree of complexity, and apparent choice of framework and context, which rather mitigates against the desire for integration. This does not, however, detract from the achievement of these authors in providing a very rich framework for development.
This task is begun in chapter seven, in which a variety of dimensions –, e.g. task, actor, document – are presented, with which design and evaluation frameworks may be devised, for research in the integrated area of information seeking and retrieval. These are developed in some detail, and certainly appear convincing. The final substantive chapter before the conclusion, chapter eight, outlines a research programme for the area. Use of the framework, with its nine dimensions, developed previously, allows for the identification of “cells” – combinations of dimensions – which amount to topics within an overall programme. Attention may then be devoted to cells in which little research has been done, or in which the results are unconvincing. The examples given are sufficient to suggest that this is an intriguing and ambitious approach, which deserves wide attention.
This admirable book deserves careful study by all those who carry out research in these areas, or who contemplate doing so. It will also serve as an excellent sourcebook, for students and academics, for the models, theories and research methods of the information sciences.
