Karen Spärck Jones is one of the major figures of 20th
century and early 21st Century computing and information
processing. Her ideas have had an important influence on the development
of Internet Search Engines. Her contribution has been recognized by
awards from the natural language processing, information retrieval and
artificial intelligence communities, including being asked to present
the prestigious Grace Hopper lecture. She continues to be an active and
influential researcher. Her contribution to the scientific evaluation of
the effectiveness of such computer systems has been quite outstanding.
This book celebrates the life and work of Karen Spärck Jones in her
seventieth year. It consists of fifteen new and original chapters
written by leading international authorities reviewing the state of the
art and her influence in the areas in which Karen Spärck Jones has been
active. Although she has a publication record which goes back over forty
years, it is clear even the very early work reviewed in the book can be
read with profit by those working on recent developments in information
processing like bioinformatics and the semantic web.