Information Retrieval System Capabilities

Abstract

This chapter discusses the major functions that are available in an Information Retrieval System. Search and browse capabilities are crucial to assist the user in locating relevant items. The search capabilities address both Boolean and Natural Language queries. The algorithms used for searching are called Boolean, natural language processing and probabilistic. Probabilistic algorithms use frequency of occurrence of processing tokens (words) in determining similarities between queries and items and also in predictors on the potential relevance of the found item to the searcher. Chapter 4 discusses in detail the data structures used to support the algorithms, and Chapters 5 and 7 describe the algorithms. The majority of existing commercial systems are based upon Boolean query and search capabilities. The newer systems such as TOPIC, RetrievalWare, and INQUERY all allow for natural language queries.