Module Information
Module Identifier
DSM8410
Module Title
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND THE INTERNET
Academic Year
2009/2010
Co-ordinator
Semester
Distance Learning
Other Staff
Course Delivery
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | essay 1,000 words approx | 30% |
Semester Assessment | practical project on Internet search tools | 70% |
Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you should be able to:
- analyse the primary features of interfaces for information systems;
- describe the principles of modern internet-based information retrieval operations;
- describe the major types of internet information retrieval tools;
- use the internet to satisfy a variety of information needs;
- produce and manage basic web pages;
- produce and manage basic images for web pages.
Brief description
In the last few years, information retrieval has expanded beyond its traditional home in libraries and formal information systems. It is now firmly in the hands of end-users, and is still undergoing a searching revolution which started in the late 1980s, when growth in the publication rate of CD_ROM databases began making the old models of information retrieval obsolescent.
Then, all database producers developed unique and increasingly complex command systems for information retrieval, and users were normally professional searchers, trained in the use of whatever retrieval interfaces were provided. That old model suited a seller's market, where:
Then, all database producers developed unique and increasingly complex command systems for information retrieval, and users were normally professional searchers, trained in the use of whatever retrieval interfaces were provided. That old model suited a seller's market, where:
- computerised databases were rare and expensive providers of quality information
- competition between databases was rare
- user's time and training resources were freely available, and
- searchers had little choice but to make the best possible use of the few accessible databases.
- its quality may be unreliable
- databases are numerous but customers are rarely trained to use them, and
- these customers must often make their choice from among many competing information retrieval systems
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7