LG Lib 339 Eng L15B

Senior Secondary Course
Learner’s Guide – Library and Information Science (339) 1
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM: CONCEPT AND SCOPE
L. No. Title of the Skills Activity

Lesson
15 B. Information Evaluation, Selection, Devising Search Strategy,
Retrieval System: Justification of search Searching Sources and Databases,
Concept and Scope strategy, Effective Evaluating and making available
Communication, ICT Information/information sources
skills, Problem Solving
and Decision Making
Summary
Information retrieval is the process of obtaining information resources that are

relevant to an information need from a collection of these resources. In other words,
an Information Retrieval System (IRS) is usually designed to analyse, process and
store information resources and further retrieve those resources or information that
match a particular user’s requirements.
Components of a traditional information retrieval system include the-

- Indexing system – indexing and searching methods and procedures (an indexing
system can be human or automated), and
- Collection of documents – text, image or multimedia documents, or document
surrogates (for example bibliographical records).
The chief objective of an information retrieval system is to retrieve the information.

It is, either the actual information or through the documents containing the
information surrogates that fully or partially match the user’s query.
The functions of IRS are- representation, storage, organization and access of

information items. The representation and organization of information items should
provide with easy access to the information in which the user is interested.
In this lesson, you will be introduced to the importance, definitions and objectives
of information retrieval. You will also study in detail the concept of subject
approach to information, process of information retrieval, and indexing languages.
Principal Points
The term ‘information retrieval’ was coined by Kelvin Mooers in 1950.
Information retrieval is the activity of obtaining information resources
relevant to an information need from a collection of information resources.
The term information retrieval was earlier used to mean retrieval of
bibliographic information from stored document databases.
Information storage and retrieval, information organization and retrieval,
information processing and retrieval, text retrieval, information representation
and retrieval and information access are different connotation of information
retrieval.
A library fulfils its function of information retrieval by maintaining some
system for searching information out of documents from its collection.
Modern information retrieval systems deal with storage, organization and
access to text, as well as multimedia information resources.
The major objective of an IRS is to retrieve the information either the actual
information or through the documents containing the information surrogates –
that fully or partially match the user’s query.
The first librarian to consider the detailed arrangement by subject was Melvil
Dewey.
Natural indexing language is not really a separate language but the ‘natural
language’ or ‘ordinary language’ of the document being indexed.
Free indexing language is not a listed language of terms, but the terms are
provided by the indexer suitable to describe the contents of a document.
Controlled indexing language is an indexing language in which the terms
used to represent subjects, and the process whereby terms are assigned to a
particular document, are controlled or executed by a person.
Build your Understanding

1. Most of the online IR systems direct What’s
users to physical as well as virtual
resources, and as such might be termed
‘hybrid’ systems in the same way that
libraries offering a mix of physical and
digital information resources are
sometimes referred to as hybrid libraries.
2. Precision and Recall are the two 1. IR is the activity of obtaining
parameters of retrieval effectiveness. information from large collections of
Precision refers to how many of the information resources in response to a
retrieved documents are relevant to the
user, whereas Recall refers to what
need. The process of information
fraction of relevant documents in the retrieval starts when a user creates any
collection are retrieved. query into the system, the query is
3. The purpose of controlled vocabularies converted into appropriate index term,
is to organise information and to provide searched in the system and eventually
terminology to catalogue and retrieve
information.
appropriate matching information is
retrieved.
2. Information retrieval (IR) did not
begin with advent of computers or
with web. In fact, the field of
information retrieval involving
indexing evolved in response to need
for information access. It is only in
the past couple of decades that
computer applications have become a
necessity for searching indexes and
for information retrieval.
3. The more advanced areas of
information retrieval focus on Cross-
lingual IR, Multimedia IR and
Semantic-based IR.
4. Every internet search engine is base
on information retrieval Google and
Yahoo are examples of prominent
computer-aided information
gathering.
1. Information search can be based on full-text or content-based indexing.

Information Retrieval is the science of searching for information in a
document, searching for documents themselves, or searching the databases.
2. Information Retrieval tools aid the library user to locate, retrieve and use
the desired information in various formats. Various information retrieval
tools are – classification Schemes, Library Catalogues, OPACs,
Bibliographies, Indexes and Abstracts.
3. The two main kinds of Controlled Vocabulary tools used in libraries are
Subject Headings and Thesauri. The use of controlled vocabularies ensure
consistent description of resources and their attributes and enables
information retrieval.
4. Until the 1950’s information retrieval was a very crucial aspect of library
science. However, when computers were first introduced, the possibility of
computerised information retrieval systems was seen. And with the advent
of Internet, information retrieval became increasingly relevant and
researched. Presently, most people use some kind of IRS on a daily basis,
whether on Google or some other system specially for libraries.
Extend your Horizon Evaluate Yourself
On the topics ‘Tokyo Olympics 2020’ 1. Write the major objective of Information
and ‘COVID-19 Vaccine’ search the Retrieval System (IRS) ?
relevant information from sources 2. Distinguish between the three main types
available in any two libraries. of indexing languages.
Compare the retrieved results from 3. What are the two chief methods for
both the libraries with search providing information contained in
conducted on Google. documents using the subject approach to
information ?
4. Depict diagrammatically the use of natural
language indexing.

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Senior Secondary Course

Learner’s Guide – Library and Information Science (339) 1

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM: CONCEPT AND SCOPE

L. No. Title of the Skills Activity

Information retrieval is the process of obtaining information resources that are

Components of a traditional information retrieval system include the-

The chief objective of an information retrieval system is to retrieve the information.

The functions of IRS are- representation, storage, organization and access of

Build your Understanding

1. Information search can be based on full-text or content-based indexing.

Extend your Horizon Evaluate Yourself

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