Human Information Retrieval (Hardcover)

Information retrieval in the age of Internet search engines has become part of ordinary discourse and everyday practice: "Google" is a verb in common usage. Thus far, more attention has been given to practical understanding of information retrieval than to a full theoretical account. In Human Information Retrieval, Julian Warner offers a transformative overview of information retrieval, synthesizing theories from different disciplines (information and computer science, librarianship and indexing, and information society discourse) and incorporating such disparate systems as WorldCat and Google into a single, robust theoretical framework. There is a need for such a theoretical treatment, he argues, one that reveals the structure and underlying patterns of this complex field while remaining congruent with everyday practice.

Warner presents a labor theoretic approach to information retrieval, building on his previously formulated distinction between semantic and syntactic mental labor, arguing that the description and search labor of information retrieval can be understood as both semantic and syntactic in character. Warner's information science approach is rooted in the humanities and the social sciences but informed by an understanding of information technology and information theory. The chapters offer a progressive exposition of the topic, with illustrative examples to explain the concepts presented. Neither narrowly practical nor largely speculative, Human Information Retrieval meets the contemporary need for a broader treatment of information and information systems.

History and Foundations of Information Science series

在互聯網搜索引擎時代，信息檢索已成為日常對話和實踐的一部分：「Google」已成為常用的動詞。迄今為止，對信息檢索的實踐理解比對其進行全面理論解釋更受關注。在《人類信息檢索》一書中，朱利安·華納提供了一個轉型的信息檢索概述，綜合了不同學科（信息科學、圖書館學和索引學以及信息社會論述）的理論，並將WorldCat和Google等不同系統納入一個統一而強大的理論框架中。他主張需要這樣一種理論性的處理方式，揭示這個複雜領域的結構和潛在模式，同時與日常實踐相一致。

華納提出了一種勞動理論的信息檢索方法，基於他先前提出的語義和句法心理勞動的區別，認為信息檢索的描述和搜索勞動既可以理解為語義的，也可以理解為句法的。華納的信息科學方法根植於人文和社會科學，但又受到對信息技術和信息理論的理解的啟發。各章節以漸進的方式闡述主題，並通過實例來解釋所提出的概念。《人類信息檢索》既不是狹義的實踐性著作，也不是大部分是推測性的著作，它滿足了當代對信息和信息系統更廣泛處理的需求。

《信息科學的歷史與基礎系列》