Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval. 3rd ed

When I saw the title of this book, I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the concepts and issues that I have not really considered since library school. Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval tries to do that, as it states in the preface: The primary audience I have in mind comprises students of library and information science programmes, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels…This book is expected to meet the requirements of students undertaking courses in information retrieval, information organization, information use, digital libraries, and so on. (p. xi) Chapters 1–22 have an introduction, which gives a brief overview of what will be covered, and a discussion at the end of the chapter. Chapter 23 serves as a synopsis of the book and an analysis of what the author sees as upcoming trends in information retrieval. Each chapter has a fairly extensive reference list. The introductory chapters cover basic topics such as cataloging, indexing, abstracting, and subject headings. Well-known and well-discussed issues such as recall versus precision, user interfaces, and vocabulary control are covered in other chapters throughout the book. Other topics that are particularly relevant to today's search environment such as web-based searching, markup languages, and searching digital libraries are covered as well. Chapter 13 discusses the evaluation of institutional repository (IR) systems, and although the subject is decently covered, there is almost no discussion of the steps in the process of evaluation. Chapter 14 covers evaluation experiments, which could probably be skipped by an undergraduate but might be relevant to a graduate student. The author spends several pages in chapter 15 explaining how to search DIALOG as an example of online searching (as opposed to web-based searching) and then at the end of the discussion states that there are better interfaces to use. So why not use one of those other interfaces as an example? Most of the rest of chapter 15 is taken up by a discussion of CD-ROM searching. Both systems are still used, but a whole chapter is certainly not warranted. Chapter 16 does a good job of reviewing information retrieval in multimedia formats, including music and speech, but more discussion of the many video formats, such as DVR, would have been useful. The author spends almost no time discussing issues such as the economics of searching, although at times cost is mentioned. He mentions social networking once, in passing, in the discussion of web searching. The author also includes too much detail in many of his chapters, such as the algorithms used in one particular system in chapter 6 on automatic indexing. There are many editing problems with this book, the most significant being the number of screen shots that are too fuzzy to be seen. The index is barely adequate, and a glossary of terms would be helpful. I did expect that information retrieval has changed in some ways since I was in library school, and, of course it has, although many of the issues have not. This book has its good points, and I found some parts of it interesting, especially some of the topics such as multimedia searching and the issue of non-English languages in information retrieval. Unfortunately, it tries to cover too much and so does not do justice to any of the topics. As a potential text for students, it does not really cover the subjects adequately. At 90, the money could probably be better spent on another book.