The Subject Approach To Information

The Subject Approach to Information is a highly readable, comprehensive study of information retrieval methods. For the fourth edition, Professor Foskett has revised and and updated his work to include current developments in all aspects of information storage and retrieval by the subject approach. The theme of the work is the basic similarity of all methods of information retrieval, and the problems which need to be solved in order to obtain good results from any system. The book opens with a consideration of the theory of information retrieval systems and explores both the difficulties and the potential of using computers in this field. The problems and uses of the different pre-coordinate and post-coordinate systems and languages are studied in depth, and there is a close examination of computer-based systems, including videotext and text retrieval, as well as more conventional reference retrieval systems such as DIALOG and Euronet/DIANE. A final chapter describes and discusses a selection of significant evaluative studies in information retrieval.

The Internet and World Wide Web have made access to information easy but do not solve the problems of finding exactly what is wanted, to the point of overwhelming the reader with information. Since the first edition of this classic librarianship text appeared, the development of computer technology has meant that the organization of information has become a hugely complex area. This fifth edition places emphasis on the intellectual effort required to make meaningful use of the enormous amount of information now accessible to the searcher. Fully revised and updated in comprehensive detail that includes bibliographies, ample examples and quotations, it focuses on: information retrieval systems database access systems online searching and OPACs hypertext networked systems. Foskett describes how we search for information by looking at the problems involved, at the theoretical principles suggested as solutions and their practical realization as classification schemes, lists of subject headings and thesauri. Readership: This influential text is widely acknowledged to be essential reading for all students of librarianship and information management, and an invaluable reference tool for practising library and information professionals.

Information science has for a long time been drawing on the knowledge produced in psychology and related fields. This is reasonable, for the central issue in information science concerns individual users navigating information spaces such as libraries, databases, and the Internet. Thus, information seeking is the fundamental problem in information science, while other problems, such as document representation, are subordinate. This book proposes a general theory of information seeking as a theoretical basis for information science. The volume begins with an examination of subject representation and retrieval. It then considers subject analysis and the organization of knowledge, the interpretational processes by which documents are analyzed, and their explicit subject retrieval data are created. Existing theories are then criticized from four epistemological perspectives, and the author argues that information science should be based on methodological collectivism, in which society, rather than the individual, determines the meaning of knowledge. The work then analyzes information seeking as a methodologically collectivistic activity. The volume begins with an examination of subject representation and retrieval. It then considers subject analysis and the organization of knowledge, the interpretational processes by which documents are analyzed, and their explicit subject retrieval data are created. Existing theories are then criticized from four epistemological perspectives, and the author argues that information science should be based on methodological collectivism, in which society, rather than the individual, determines the meaning of knowledge. The work then analyzes information seeking as a methodologically collectivistic activity.

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