Developing databases for online information retrieval

Abstract

The emergence of online databases represents a shift from providing a physical entity, a book or an article, to the more abstract concept of providing or transferring information. The role of the database developer/analyst in that shift is that of an information retrieval ‘cataloger’ responsible for determining the access points supported by the database's contents, much as a traditional library cataloger defines, describes, and classifies the intellectual content of a book and ‘maps’ it into the library's card catalog. This is only one of the several parallels between the functions of an information retrieval service and a traditional library. For example, users ‘check‐out’ information from both, but while a circulation staff shifts the collection to accommodate growth, a retrieval service updates databases and allocates additional disk space to allow for expansion. Describing the tasks required in developing a database for online searching is the purpose of this paper. The requisite tasks for database development are: analysis, design, conversion, testing, loading, and documentation. Analysis involves a determination of file format (fixed, stream, directory) across all years of the file. Design requires understanding file content, the needs of end user, and retrieval system standards and features. Conversion is accomplished by file generation programs that convert input data into the searchable and printable fields of an online database. Testing consists of debugging the conversion program and adjusting the original design to accommodate aberrant data conditions. Loading is the creation, by the file generation programs, of disk files to be accessed by the retrieval system. Documentation is the transfer of experience and knowledge about file content and system feature from file designer to file user. The task of designing databases for an online information retrieval service requires more than data processing expertise. It also requires an intellectual understanding of the information‐seeking behavior and needs of the users of the database in general, and users in the subject area in particular. Information professionals from outside the purely EDP area are requisite to support the technical analysis, design, and development of databases for online searching. For it is upon their broad‐based understanding, translated technically into access points, database and system features that any information retrieval service bases its successful operation. Database development, then, is the hub of the wheel in such a service, much as descriptive cataloging and subject classification are the intellectual underpinning of libraries, upon which all other services are based.

Citation

Reveley Levine, G. (1981), "Developing databases for online information retrieval", Online Review, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 109-120. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024053