Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
least explicable—orderings and discernible analogies. For instance, rank-
ing results by the number of links to Internet pages may be analogous to
ordering records of topics by the number of libraries that hold them, or
ordering journal articles by the number of citations received: the various
orderings all function as surrogate indicators of diffusion or adoption.
Variable practices are intended to confer value, and the persistence of
some variable elements in practice across contrasting cultures implies the
possibility of value or significance transcending their particular method
of instantiation, whether by human semantic description, search labor, or
computational transformations. The market effect continues to function
as a selection mechanism, progressively differentiating synchronic value
from inherited practice. The particular forms of value conferred might be
better understood by contrasting them with inescapable elements, laying
bare the real reasons for their continued existence.
Inescapable Elements
Selection operations are inescapable and intrinsic to the understanding
of information retrieval we have developed here; the particular selection
operations may vary, although more in theory than in real-world practice.
Experimental information retrieval began by critiquing the effectiveness
of Boolean searching, and developed forms of retrieval it characterized
as non-Boolean. However, directly Boolean operations are very common
in real-world practice for the selection but not necessarily the ordering of
retrieved documents and records. They also correspond to fundamental
computational operations. Contrary to criticisms made in experimental
retrieval, and possibly attracted by the transparency and intelligibility
offered by Boolean operations, the dominant market effect is toward
selection of Boolean systems. The crucial dimension for further analysis
will involve abstracting the word or other segments of utterance from
writing, which is realized in Boolean searching but may not be confined
to it. Therefore, we can assume Boolean operations for our subsequent
analysis, ensuring its relevance to real-world practice without significantly
restricting its theoretical scope.
Inescapable elements emerge as the residue left behind following the
separation of variable elements. Under modernity, selection operations
are intrinsic to information retrieval, and all these operations can be gen-
erated from the fundamental computational operations necessary for
