INFORMATION Retrieval & Representation

In our technologically advanced societies, information has become a "hot" commodity.  Everybody wants pertinent information at their fingertips.

• Before venturing outside our homes, we want to know the weather forecast.
• Employers want to know everything about future employees: they compile credit information, perform background searches, require medical testing, and now, they also review social media websites (such as, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) to ascertain personal characteristics and relationships.
• Corporate entities are always searching for marketing data/information to project market trends.
• Communication entities (newspapers, radio stations, TV, etc.) are constantly on the look-out for the next big "story".

Gathering pertinent information is paramount to living, working, and doing business within our globalized communities. In our search of collective databases, we find various types of data and information: textual documentation (articles, journals, books, webpages, written correspondence in PDF format), still images - photos, videos and audio recordings.

And, how is all of this data and information represented for efficient retrieval?

According to various authors, there are basic methods of information representation.  The book, "Modern Information Retrieval", lists the following:

• Indexing (utilizes controlled vocabularies, and incorporates central depositories)
• Categorizing (i.e. assignment of subject headings, titles, authors, etc.)
• Extracting key words and phrases from electronic database content
• Summarizing content to condense and specify

Institutions (such as, libraries and academia) and popular social media utilize these various forms of information representation when retrieving data and information.  During numerous Internet searches performed, I've utilized these different methods to obtain desired information.  Knowing which databases to search and how they're structured is key to obtaining successful results.

Before getting into detailed search experiences, its time for a "chocolate break"!


References

Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto. (2011). Modern information retrieval, the concepts and technology behind search. New York: Pearson Education Limited.