Advances in information retrieval(ACM 82 Panel Session)
Donald H. Kraft · 1982
In conventional information retrieval Boolean combinations of index terms are used to formulate the users' information request. Boolean queries are difficult to generate and the retrieved items are not presented to the user in any useful order. A new flexible retrieval system is described which makes it possible to relax the strict conditions of Boolean query logic thereby retrieving useful items that are rejected in a conventional retrieval situation. The query structure inherent in the Boolean system is preserved, while at the same time weighted terms may be incorporated into both queries and stored documents; the retrieved output can also be ranked in strict similarity order with the user queries. A conventional retrieval system can be modified to make use of the flexible metric system. Laboratory tests indicate that the extended system produces better retrieval output than conventional Boolean or vector processing systems.