Chapter 1 places into perspective a total Information Storage and
Retrieval System. This perspective introduces new challenges to the
problems that need to be theoretically addressed and commercially
implemented. Ten years ago commercial implementation of the algorithms
being developed was not realistic, allowing theoreticians to limit their
focus to very specific areas. Bounding a problem is still essential in
deriving theoretical results. But the commercialization and insertion of
this technology into systems like the Internet that are widely being
used changes the way problems are bounded. From a theoretical
perspective, efficient scalability of algorithms to systems with
gigabytes and terabytes of data, operating with minimal user search
statement information, and making maximum use of all functional aspects
of an information system need to be considered. The dissemination
systems using persistent indexes or mail files to modify ranking
algorithms and combining the search of structured information fields and
free text into a consolidated weighted output are examples of potential
new areas of investigation. The best way for the theoretician or the
commercial developer to understand the importance of problems to be
solved is to place them in the context of a total vision of a complete
system. Understanding the differences between Digital Libraries and
Information Retrieval Systems will add an additional dimension to the
potential future development of systems. The collaborative aspects of
digital libraries can be viewed as a new source of information that
dynamically could interact with information retrieval techniques.
