LIBR 202-17
Information Retrieval
Spring 2008 Greensheet
Shimelis Assefa, PhD
E-mail
Office Location: University of Denver, Johnson-McFarlane Hall, Room 108, Denver, CO 80208.
Virtual Office Hours: E-mail, Telephone, Chat, and conferencing via Elluminate would be arranged. Mandatory Elluminate session will be held on January 25th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm (mountain time).
Phone: (214) 507-7729 or (303) 923-3243.
| Greensheet Links Textbooks and Readings Course Requirements |
Resources Blackboard Blackboard Tutorials |
LIBR 202 Resources Online Resource Supplemental Readings Inmagic Download |
Course Description
Principles of information retrieval and their application to information systems and services. Emphasizing models of user information seeking behavior, human information processing and their relationship to retrieval models in information systems
Course Prerequisites: demonstrated computer literacy and basic understanding of information storage, information representation, and retrieval.
Course Objectives
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon a successful completion of the course the student should be able to:
- Explain the components that make up an information retrieval system
- Describe and discuss the key features of the different information retrieval models
- Master to some degree of confidence the essential ingredients in IR toolbox, such as:
- Document analysis/text operations
- Indexing
- Query languages
- Searching
- Describe the different information seeking behavior models
- Understand IR evaluation methods
LIBR 202 supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:
- Design, query and evaluate information retrieval systems;
- Understand the system of standards and methods used to control and create information structures and apply basic principles involved in the organization and representation of knowledge;
- Describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors.
These additional SLIS Core Competencies are also supported by this section:
- Use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation, and organization of specific items or collections of information;
- Demonstrate proficiency in the use of current information and communication technologies, and other related technologies, as they affect the resources and uses of libraries and other types of information providing entities;
- Use service concepts, principles and techniques that facilitate information access, relevance, and accuracy for individuals or groups of users;
- Demonstrate oral and written communication skills necessary for group work, collaborations and professional level presentations.
See: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/competencies.htm
Textbooks and Readings
Required Textbook
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, R., Ribeiro-Neto, B. (1999). Modern Information Retrieval. New York: ACM Press.
- Meadow, C.T., Boyce, B.R., Kraft, D.H., & Barry, C. (2007). Text Information Retrieval Systems. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Academic press.
Recommended Readings
- Chowdhury, G.G. (2004). Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval. London: Facet publishing.
Supplemental Readings are on electronic reserve
NOTE: If books are purchased from Amazon via SLIS referral (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/courses/books), SLIS scholarship funds get a 6%referral bonus.
Course Requirements
Complete the New Student Technology Workshop
This is a mandatory short, self-paced online workshop on Blackboard that must be completed by all new SLIS students before the first day of classes. The access code for this course will be sent to new students via MySJSU. If you have questions about this course, e-mail Debbie Faires or Dale David.
For more information, see http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/blackboardintro.htm
Assignments
Assignments include the following common elements:
- Weekly discussion postings and participation in the discussion forum
- Reading summaries
- Database design using Inmagic DB/TextWorks
- Midterm
- Final Exam
| Assignment | Points | %age |
| Weekly discussion postings & participation in the discussion forum (10 at 10 points each) | 100 | 25 |
| Reading summaries | 100 | 15 |
| Database design | 200 | 40 |
| Midterm | 100 | 10 |
| Final exam | 100 | 10 |
| Total | 600 | 100 |
Course Calendar
Description of assignments and due dates will be announced in Blackboard. There is always flexibility in assignment due dates if personal or professional responsibilities will not allow a student to complete tasks on the due dates.
- Week 1 (January 23)
Topic: Introduction, definition, history, the retrieval process, IR components
Readings:- Meadow et al., et al., Chapter 1
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 1
- Chowdhury, Chapter 1
- Week 2 (January 30)
Topic: IR models – classical, Boolean, vector, probabilistic, and language models.
Readings:- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 2
- Week 3 (February 6)
Topic: Information representation – subject analysis
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 3
- Chowdhury, Chapter 5
- Week 4 (February 13)
Topic: Query Languages – language types, keyword-based, single-word, context queries
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 7
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 4
- Week 5 (February 20)
Topic: Query operations – interpretation and execution of query statements
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 8
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 5
- Week 6 (February 27)
Topic: Indexing of documents, indexing and searching
Readings:- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 8
- Week 7 (March 5)
Topic: Text operations, natural language processing
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 9
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 7
- Chowdhury, Chapters 20, 21
- Week 8 (March 12)
Topic: Database design, file structure, logical and physical data structure
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapters 5, 6
- More readings will be made available via Blackboard under ‘Class resources’
- Week 9 (March 19)
Topic: User interfaces and visualization, the information retrieval system interface
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 14
- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 10
- Chowdhury, Chapter 12
- March 24 – 28, Spring Recess
- March 31, Cesar Chavez Day
- Week 10 (April 2)
Topic: Information seeking behavior, information needs
Readings:- Readings will be made available via Blackboard under ‘Class resources’
- Week 11 (April 9)
Topic: Searching the web, web IR
Readings:- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapter 13
- Chowdhury, Chapter 18
- Week 12 (April 16)
Topic: Semantic web
Readings:- Readings will be made available via Blackboard under ‘Class resources’
- Week 13 (April 23)
Topic: Faceted search, social tagging and bookmarking, folksonomy, personalization
Readings:- Readings will be made available via Blackboard under ‘Class resources’
- Week 14 (April 30)
Topic: Digital libraries, Libraries and bibliographical systems
Readings:- Baeza-Yates & Ribeiro-Neto, Chapters 14, 15
- Chowdhury, Chapter 22
- More Readings will be made available via Blackboard under ‘Class resources’
- Week 15 (May 7)
Topic: Evaluation of retrieval effectiveness
Readings:- Meadow et al., Chapter 16
- Chowdhury, Chapter 13
Grading Scale
The standard SJSU SLIS Grading Scale is utilized for all SLIS courses:
| 97-100 | A |
| 94-96 | A- |
| 91-93 | B+ |
| 88-90 | B |
| 85-87 | B- |
| 82-84 | C+ |
| 79-81 | C |
| 76-78 | C- |
| 73-75 | D+ |
| 70-72 | D |
| 67-69 | D- |
| Below 67 | F |
In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:
- C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
- B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
- A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.
Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0.
Academic Integrity
Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at San José State University, and the University's Academic Integrity Policy requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The policy on academic integrity can be found at http://sa.sjsu.edu/student_conduct.
Reasonable Accommodation of Disabilities
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability,
please e-mail me as soon as possible. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires
that students with disabilities register with the Disability Resource Center
(DRC) to establish record of their disability.
No matter where students reside, they should contact the SJSU DRC to register. The DRC Web site: http://www.drc.sjsu.edu/
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