Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age (ASIST Monograph Series)

摘要

The two books reviewed here cover essentially the same area: the representation and retrieval of information, in a "library/information" context. They are both aimed mainly at an LIS student audience, though one says so more clearly than the other. Gobinda Ghowdhury's book is the second edition of a well-regarded student text, first published in 1999. The aim of the first edition was "to provide a blend of traditional and new approaches to information retrieval". The second edition aims to maintain this approach, while incorporating "wider perspectives and latest developments", largely those associated with the Web and with digital libraries. To a great extent, it succeeds. The author is very clear as to his audience. The book is aimed primarily at students of librarianship and information science, both undergraduate and postgraduate. The secondary audience is practitioners who want to "brush up their knowledge in different areas of information retrieval". Chowdhury could also have mentioned researchers, who might find it useful at the earliest stages of their studies, as a good source of literature if nothing else. But this is first and foremost a student text, and a good one.