This is the third edition of a popular text for students and practitioners of library and information studies, by respected educator, researcher and author, Professor Gobinda Chowdhury (currently Professor in Information and Media Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia).
Information retrieval is a modest term for what has essentially become a very complex area, and the aim of the text is very ambitious “[…] to cover the whole spectrum of information storage and retrieval […]” (preface, xi), in a non‐technical way that primarily meets the requirements of library and information studies students and be a source book for practitioners.
Information retrieval is essentially about finding information. To do this, it concerns itself with the activities necessary to organise, process and provide access to information in its entirety. At the same time, the mechanics of information retrieval, underpinned by technology, is about creating systems that allow users to go about the business of finding that information (p. 1).
Professor Chowdhury provides a systematic view of information retrieval systems – their origins, technical developments and evolution.
Even though the textbook is some 508 pages long, it is divided into 23 fairly short chapters, each concluding with a discussion and a list of references. The language is kept in a readable style that is both educative and informative.
Chapters 1‐8 are mainly concerned with the design of information retrieval systems – how information is organised and described for easy machine retrieval (bibliographic formats; cataloguing formats/conventions; classification schemes; indexing and abstracting; development of thesauri and subject lists).
Chapters 9‐14 cover the processes of searching for and finding relevant information – information searching; user behaviour and models of information retrieval; user interfaces; evaluations of information retrieval systems and retrieval evaluation studies.
Chapters 15‐20 feature the more technical aspects of information retrieval. The chapters are separated into: online, CD‐ROM and multimedia information retrieval; how hypertext and mark up languages work; information retrieval via the web; natural language processing and intelligent information retrieval systems.
The addition of a new chapter focussing on citation analysis and information retrieval is a welcome addition but is let down by dated and limited references.
The text concludes with two final chapters focussing on “Information retrieval in digital libraries” and “Trends in information retrieval”, respectively.
Personally I feel that as technology is all pervasive in the modern library world, the aspects of information retrieval in digital libraries has already been discussed throughout the text, and therefore a chapter solely devoted to digital libraries is a little irrelevant.
The final chapter that discusses trends in information retrieval is a good overview of trends over the past few years but lacks in providing future direction, again because of dated references.
Overall, a useful overview for students that provides them with a readable insight into the importance of “information retrieval” within library and information studies, and how it has evolved in an era where technology underpins every aspect of the library and information world.
It is, however, let down by dated and selective referencing and sometimes sloppy editing. A number of things added to the frustration of reading this text, namely, the use of poor‐quality screen shots, and the insistence of devoting so much space to CD‐ROM technology.
