Monday 7 December 2009

Session 8: information retrieval

INM348 - Digital Information Technologies and Architectures
 
This session deals with information retrieval (IR), which refers to the process of getting information from a wide range databases, sources and collections. It's different to the querying of relational databases which is concerned with getting data from structured and linked database tables.

Let's reflect on the way I have used IR to aid my learning from this module. First of all, I follow references from my lecture notes, either via hyperlinks or offline. I often need to augment these references with my own research, especially as I don't have an IT background. My first stop is usually Google [URL: http://www.google.co.uk/]; Google uses the Boolean 'AND' operator as default [URL: http://www.google.co.uk/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861], so I can search for 'XML W3 Schools' to quickly home in on useful resources. Likewise I can use Google's simple search to return a wider set of results, or use other operators if I need to [URL: http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html].

Google is so simple to use that it's easy to forget that there are other ways of finding information. The University of California has carried out a useful comparison of search engines [URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html]; it points out that using multiple search engines if often necessary.

Contents of some specialist catalogues and databases aren’t always crawled by search engines. It’s always worth finding out about electronic library catalogues, such as the City University London [URL: http://www.city.ac.uk/library/] or British Library catalogues [URL: http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-list], or specialist databases for the field you’re working in, to provide a deeper perspective on the areas you’re researching.

In conclusion, I’ve been able to augment my learning in this module by developing my own information retrieval skills, from a reliance on Google’s simple search to something more nuanced. I’ve realised that learning the IR skills necessary to harness the vast resources that the online world has to offer has been almost as important as the content of the module itself.

Word count for this entry: 300 words.

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