Modern Information Retrieval Chapter 1: Introduction

Contents

6. How to Use this Book

Although several people have contributed chapters for this book, it is really a textbook. The contents and the structure of the book have been carefully designed by the two main authors who also authored or coauthored nine of the 15 chapters in the book. Further, all the contributed chapters have been judiciously edited and integrated into a unifying framework that provides uniformity in structure and style, a common glossary, a common bibliography, and appropriate cross-references. At the end of each chapter, a discussion on research issues, trends, and selected bibliography is included. This discussion should be useful for graduate students as well as for researchers. Furthermore, the book is complemented by a Web page with additional information and resources.

1. Teaching Suggestions

This textbook can be used in many different areas including computer science (CS), information systems, and library science. The following list gives suggested contents for different courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, based on syllabuses of many universities around the world:

• Information Retrieval (Computer Science, undergraduate): this is the standard course for many CS programs. The minimum content should include Chapters 1 to 8 and Chapter 10, that is, most of the part on Text IR complemented with the chapter on user interfaces. Some specific topics of those chapters, such as more advanced models for IR and sophisticated algorithms for indexing and searching, can be omitted to fit a one term course. The chapters on Applications of IR can be mentioned briefly at the end.
• Advanced Information Retrieval (Computer Science, graduate): similar to the previous course but with more detailed coverage of the various chapters particularly modeling and searching (assuming the previous course as a requirement). In addition, Chapter 9 and Chapters 13 to 15 should be covered completely. Emphasis on research problems and new results is a must.
• Information Retrieval (Information Systems, undergraduate): this
  course is similar to the CS course, but with a different emphasis. It should include Chapters 1 to 7 and Chapter 10. Some notions from Chapter 8 are useful but not crucial. At the end, the system-oriented parts of the chapters on Applications of IR, in particular those on Bibliographic Systems and Digital Libraries, must be covered (this material can be complemented with topics from [lesk97]).
• Information Retrieval (Library Science, undergraduate): similar to the previous course, but removing the more technical and advanced material of Chapters 2, 5, and 7. Also, greater emphasis should be put on the chapters on Bibliographic Systems and Digital Libraries. The course should be complemented with a thorough discussion of the user-centered view of the IR problem (for example, using the book by Allen [alle]).
• Multimedia Retrieval (Computer Science, undergraduate or graduate): this course should include Chapters 1 to 3, 6, and 11 to 15. The emphasis could be on multimedia itself or on the integration of classical IR with multimedia. The course can be complemented with one of the many books on this topic, which are usually more broad and technical.
• Topics in IR (Computer Science, graduate): many chapters of the book can be used for this course. It can emphasizemodeling and evaluation or user interfaces and visualization. It can also be focused on algorithms and data structures (in that case, [fby92] and [WMB94] are good complements). A multimedia focus is also possible, starting with Chapters 11 and 12 and using more specific books later on.
• Topics in IR (Information Systems or Library Science, graduate) similar to the above but with emphasis on non-technical parts. For example, the course could cover modeling and evaluation, query languages, user interfaces, and visualization. The chapters on applications can also be considered.
• Web Retrieval and Information Access (generic, undergraduate or graduate): this course should emphasize hypertext, concepts coming from networks and distributed systems and multimedia. The kernel should be the basic models of Chapter 2 followed by Chapters 3, 4, and 6. Also, Chapters 11 and 13 to 15 should be discussed.
• Digital Libraries (generic, undergraduate or graduate): This course could start with part of Chapters 2 to 4 and 6, followed by Chapters 10, and 15. The kernel of the course could be based on the book by Lesk [lesk97].

More bibliography useful for many of the courses above is discussed in the last section of this chapter.

2. The Book's Web Page

As IR is a very dynamic area nowadays, a book by itself is not enough. For that reason (and many others), the book has a Web home page located and mirrored in the following places (mirrors in USA and Europe are also planned):

• Brazil: http://www.dcc.ufmg.br/irbook
• Chile: http://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/irbook

Comments, suggestions, contributions, or mistakes found are welcome through email to the contact authors given on the Web page.

The Web page contains the Table of Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Glossary, and other appendices to the book. It also includes exercises and teaching materials that will be increasing in volume and changing with time. In addition, a reference collection (containing 1239 documents on Cystic Fibrosis and 100 information requests with extensive relevance evaluation [swwt91]) is available for experimental purposes. Furthermore, the page includes useful pointers to IR syllabuses in different universities, IR research groups, IR publications, and other resources related to IR and this book. Finally, any new important results or additions to the book as well as an errata will be made publicly available there.