DIS 401: Information Retrieval

Topic 2: Basic concepts of Information

Retrieval Systems
Lecture Topics
a) What is an information retrieval system?
b) Features of an information retrieval system
c) Elements and functions of an information
retrieval system
d) Kinds of information retrieval systems
e) Design issues
a) What is an information retrieval system?

 Definition:
An Information Retrieval System (IRS) can be defined as:
 a system which handles and interprets the contents of the information
items and user queries to retrieve the information needed to satisfy
information needs of users (http://www.ijcee.org/papers/104.pdf)
 A system that allows people to communicate with an information system
or service in order to find information (the course textbook, page 1)

 Goal
An information retrieval system is designed to enable users to find
relevant information from a stored and organized collection of
documents (the course textbook p. 2)
b) Features of an information retrieval system
 Modern information retrieval systems usually provide the following
features:
 (Automatic) indexing
 Capability of searching and retrieving all types of information
items (text, image, audio, video, etc.)
 Free (full)-text and field search capability
 Boolean and proximity matching
 Keyword and phrase search techniques
 Multi-language retrieval
 Query assistance (recommending system)
 Documents ranking
 Relevance feedback
 Filtering capabilities (cluster based search method)
c) Elements and functions of an information retrieval system

 Components of an information retrieval system:

 Document subsystem • Searching subsystem
 Indexing subsystem • Search interface
 Vocabulary subsystem • Matching system
 User system interface
 Functions of information an retrieval system:
 Identify information (sources) relevant to the interests of targeted user community
 Analyze the content of information sources (documents)
 Represent the contents of analyzed sources in a way that matches users’ queries.
Currently, this is done by automatically creating one or more index files
 Analyze users’ queries and represent them in a form that will be suitable for
matching databases. Currently, this is made in a number of ways, through the
design of sophisticated search interfaces including those that can provide some
help to users for selection of appropriate search terms, by using dictionary and
thesauri, automatic spell checkers, a predefined set of search statements, and so
forth
 Match search statement(s) with information (documents) in databases. Information
retrieval models (will be discussed later) are usually adopted by IRS developers to
enable their IRS do the matching between search statements (user queries) and
document terms (metadata, descriptors, subject headings, etc.,)
 Retrieve information (documents). At the end, IRS should retrieve relevant
documents that satisfy user needs. Different tools & techniques are used by IRS to
determine relevancy (will be discussed later)
d) Kinds of popular information retrieval
systems
 Major information retrieval systems:
 OPACs
 Online Retrieval Systems
 Digital libraries
 Web search engines
 Online Public Access Catalogs
(OPACs)
 OPACs are typical example of
limited features of information
retrieval systems
 An OPAC is mainly used to
search for and retrieve
information from and about
published documents (books,
journals, Theses, CDs, DVDs,
etc)
 Mainly used by libraries but can
be useful for any organization
with a collection of published
information sources
 Provide very limited
bibliographic entry searches
such as title, author (creator),
publisher, etc
 OPACs usually have less
sophisticated search and
retrieval that other categories of
information retrieval system
 Online Retrieval Systems
 Online retrieval systems appeared
in the early years of computer
application in information retrieval
(60s & 70s)
 Examples of these systems were
Dialog, Ovid and RBS.
 Online retrieval systems are
designed to work on many large
live databases containing millions
of records and some times their
documents
 Compared to other systems, online
retrieval systems provide very
advanced search and retrieval
features
 Online retrieval systems are
usually fee- or subscription-based
services; and they provide access
to peer viewed, quality (often
scholarly) information sources
 Digital Libraries
 A digital library is a digital
service normally available on
the web that provides
search, access, and delivery
of organized digital
collections of text, image,
audio or video files
 Digital libraries are different
from typical online retrieval
systems in that they are
often free and can be
accessed by virtually anyone
through the web
 Web Search Engine
 Search engines are special
tools (computer programs)
on the web which are
designed to help people
search for and retrieve
information stored on
websites
 Web search engines often
help people find information
on the web, but they do not
guarantee access to the
resources they retrieve
 Search engines normally
are free to use by anyone
as search tools
e) Design and Selection Issues
1) Analysis
An analysis has to be conducted in order to establish the requirements of a
system, and to learn the various options available
2) Design Selection
Next comes the design phase, which eventually leads to having a specific
system to match the requirements.
3) Implementation
Next comes the implementation stage, which leads into the operating stage
during which the system fulfils its objectives and is modified from time to time
to match the minor changes in requirements
4) End & Replacement
Eventually the system becomes less effective, for a number of reasons
including mechanical faults, arrival of new technologies and major changes
in the requirements and in the environment. This stage leads to decay, which
finally leads to replacement of the system – starting at step 1 again