Information Retrieval allows users to search through large sets of unstructured data to resolve information needs. The process of indexing prepares media for retrieval; keywords and concepts are assigned to aid discovery of resources. Indexing involves:
1) Identifying the fields (ex. author)
2) Identifying the words (ex. United Kingdom, UK, or U.K.)
3) Removing stop words (ex. a, the, to)
4) Stemming (removing suffixes)
5) Creation of Thesaurus of phrases/words (in some cases)
(Lecture Notes, Session 8)
During the lab session I followed steps 2-4 of the indexing process to create an index of two documents.
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My Information Retrieval Strategies
Before writing my blog entries, I consult the lecture notes posted on CitySpace. I view the PDF and enter keywords into the "Find" feature to locate information I need to review. Because I have already read through the notes, attended a briefing and participated in a lab session on the topic, this search strategy works well. I am aware of the key concepts of the topic, and I use this knowledge to locate information that will help me reinforce what I have already learned. The "Find" feature would not operate as efficiently for a user without knowledge of the keywords and concepts in the document.
If I still don't understand a concept, I turn to Google and enter a keyword or natural language question into the search box. Typically, I browse the results and find a relevant resource within the top 10 results. While Google is a useful technology, it presents the challenge of how to locate quality resources amidst the massive number of results returned.
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