Heuristics for online information retrieval: a typology and preliminary listing

At this point in its short history, online information retrieval possesses many of the characteristics of an art. In spite of much that is logical and orderly about it, there are few specific rules of action or well‐defined procedures that are known to apply in all retrieval situations. Except in the simplest of cases, online searching is more uncertain and tentative than this.. It is largely guided by heuristics rather than algorithms.