Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age (Asist Monograph Series) (Hardcover)

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Product Description

Text offers a comprehensive view of Information Representation and Retrieval (IRR). Emphasizes principles and fundamentals, reviewing key concepts and major developmental stages of the field. For students or practitioners needed broad and current knowledge of this topic in information science. DLC: Information organization.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Information Today; 1 edition (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573871729
• ISBN-13: 978-1573871723
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #686,137 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Typical Textbook, August 4, 2008

By	Lit Chic "~Stephanie" (The Lone Star State) - See all my reviews

I just wrapped up my first semester in the Master of Library Science program at Texas Woman's University. This text was one selected for my Information Storage and Retrieval course. Let me preface this review by simply admitting that after an extensive undergraduate career (read: I changed majors three times) and one semester of graduate school, this is only the second non-literature textbook I have actually read in its entirety.

I am not a computer science person. At best, I just haven't been afraid of exploding my hard drive or the internet by messing with stuff I don't understand. Therefore, my background does not exactly predispose me to favoring this book. That being said, Dr. Heting Chu is an obviously gifted writer. She succinctly explains everything, but that's the idea--she strikes the perfect balance between adequate explanation and boring overkill. Chu writes an informative text that dares to even be entertaining at times. She handles her topics with an amazing grasp of language. Most of this book covers radically abstract concepts, yet she brings it down for those of us who don't speak information as a first language. Chu made the difference in my course: she gave me a foundation for all of the fun.

The book opens with an adequate overview and history of Information Science. She moves on to basic approaches in Chapters 2 and 3, then language use in Chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 go over queries (searches), and Chapters 7 and 8 continue with information models and systems. Chapter 9 addresses unique situations (like multimedia), and Chapter 10 looks at the user dimension in information retrieval. Chapter 11 looks at evaluation, and Chapter 12 addresses the future: artificial intelligence and IRR.

This book really has a wider audience than Library and Information Science majors: anyone interested in the fields of information, the history and state of the information era, or simply computer buffs would benefit from this quick read. The reading level is obviously not too difficult: I certainly can't claim any special reading status. A motivated high school student would be able to glean a great deal of value from this work. At any rate, Chu's work is so interesting that I hope it finds a wider audience.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate resource for dedicated students, November 14, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Information Representation And Retrieval In The Digital Age by Heting Chu (Associate Professor, Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University), is a scholarly study of the history, development, and science of information representation and retrieval from the turn of the 20th century to the modern day. Studying means of indexing, summarizing, issues of language in information retrieval, query representation, user dimensions including the cognitive model, artificial intelligence in information representation and retrieval, and much more, Information Representation And Retrieval In The Digital Age is a first-rate resource for dedicated students and current practitioners of information technology, an invaluable addition to academic Library Science reference collections and curriculum reading lists.