Information Retrieval Design: Principles and Options for Information Description, Organization, Display, and Access in Information Retrieval Databases, Digital Libraries, Catalogs, and Indexes

Citation

Beheshti, J. (2005), "Information Retrieval Design: Principles and Options for Information Description, Organization, Display, and Access in Information Retrieval Databases, Digital Libraries, Catalogs, and Indexes", Online Information Review, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 564-565. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520510628963

As the lengthy subtitle indicates, this substantial publication covers a wide array of subjects dealing with designing databases and information retrieval systems. The book consists of 22 chapters, a glossary and an extensive bibliography. It begins with an introductory chapter on database terminology, standards and codes, followed by three chapters covering definition of the subject, scope and domain of a database. Chapter 5 is on the media used for displaying information, from paper to CD‐ROM and the web. The next chapter consists of a brief general introduction to differences between surrogates, indexes and full‐text documents.

The following nine chapters deal with indexing issues and are mainly based on the work of Committee YY of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), which was chaired by one of the authors during 1990s. These chapters comprise topics such as the definition of indexing; indexing process and methods, both manual and automatic; types of information that should be indexed; exhaustivity and specificity; syntax analysis; pre‐coordinated indexes, including Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH); keyword in‐context and out‐of‐context; vocabulary structures; cross references or syndetic structure; surrogating and locators, which connect surrogates to information units.

The remaining chapters of the book cover various record formats such as MARC; display issues pertaining to indexes, records and full‐text; and search interfaces. The latter chapter contains screen shots of various information systems and university online catalogues.

Information Retrieval Design is a fine textbook on indexing and the organization of information. The range of topics ensures that the reader is exposed to important concepts in indexing. For instance, both practitioners and students benefit from the discussions on advantages and intricacies of utilizing facets and the importance of facet analysis. One interesting feature of this publication is the three example cases (a book index, an indexing and abstracting service, and a full‐text encyclopedia/digital library), which are used throughout the book to demonstrate the theoretical deliberations.

Ironically, the organization of the book presents an interesting oddity. Every paragraph within each chapter is numbered, to which the back of the book index refers. Although some readers may find this layout distracting, others may use the references to focus quickly on a specific topic.

While the subject of retrieval is covered only briefly and superficially, Information Retrieval Design deals with indexing and other pertinent topics thoroughly and in great detail. In fact the subtitle of the book is a more apt description of the content than the main title. Clearly, a second volume would have been required had the authors wished to address retrieval issues with the same diligence and rigor as they have indexing.