Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Introduction
Information retrieval is of high contemporary significance, diffusing into
ordinary discourse and everyday practice. Recently information retrieval
has changed rapidly, particularly through the influence of Internet search
engines. Practical understanding of how to use systems has been in
advance of fuller theoretic understanding, particularly when concerned
with transformations of meaning. The breadth of the area—the variety of
disciplines that have and potentially could contribute—may have inhib-
ited the development of understanding. A deep divide remains between
centrally relevant activities and their associated cultures, between library
and information science and Internet search engines. The limited theoreti-
cal development implies a need for a deeper—more comprehensive and
inclusive—understanding of information retrieval, which should reveal
structure and underlying patterns in a complex, differentially understood,
and apparently chaotic area. Ideally, a deeper understanding or theory
should be congruent with practical understanding and everyday prac-
tice. It should also be explicitly articulated, yielding knowledge which can
be returned to the real world to inform deliberate intervention in system
design and use rather than unconsciously reproducing patterns of activity.
The overall intention is to develop a labor theoretic approach to infor-
mation retrieval. The immediate concern in this chapter involves the initial
components for this
approach. This chapter also reviews existing evalu-
ative traditions and indicates the possibility for synthesis within a labor
theoretic approach. Chapter 2 introduces and develops crucial concepts
of selection
power and selection labor, both as concepts and activities in
themselves and for the relation between them.
