The development of this subject during the latter 19th and early 20th century was limited by the view that the problems to be solved were substantially those of the physical arrangement of books on library shelves. A classification scheme could achieve this, while a catalogue permitted other approaches to the stock. These methods continue to be used, but are now seen to be only part of the methods needed to retrieve information quickly and efficiently from libraries, databases and individual documents.

Your study of this subject will be taking into consideration three elements:

• the body of traditional literature;
• the vigorous development of information storage and retrieval since the 1950s, often with many competing theories and attitudes; and
• the acknowledgement of the fact that the subject is not readily divisible into distinct topics; there is much inter-connection and overlap between the topics which this module presents to you in a week-by-week linear structure