Information Retrieval System

a combination of an information retrieval language, rules for translating from natural language into the information retrieval language and vice versa, and match criteria that is designed to perform information retrieval. It is necessary to distinguish information retrieval systems from information retrieval devices, which are special machines or specific methods for organizing a combination of technological facilities designed for the practical accomplishment of information retrieval.

Among the components of a specific information retrieval system, aside from the information retrieval language, rules of translation, and match criteria, are also found the means for its technical implementation, a body of texts (documents) in which the information retrieval is accomplished, and the personnel directly involved in the retrieval. Information retrieval systems are divided into two basic types—documentary and factual. The index in a book and a library catalog or stacks are examples of specific documentary information retrieval systems, whereas a telephone book, an address book, and a catalog of goods are examples of factual information retrieval systems. A factual information retrieval system, in contrast to a logical information processing system, does not provide for the extraction of new information from that contained in it but only helps in quickly locating the facts or information that were put into it. A variant of a documentary information retrieval system is a bibliographic information system designed to retrieve only bibliographic descriptions of texts (documents) containing the essential information and not the texts themselves.