Information Retrieval has become a very active research field in the
21st century. Many from academia and industry present their innovations
in the field in a wide variety of conferences and journals. Companies
transfer this new knowledge directly to the general public via services
such as web search engines in order to improve their information seeking
experience.
In parallel, teaching IR is turning into an important aspect of IR
generally, not only because it is necessary to impart effective search
techniques to make the most of the IR tools available, but also because
we must provide a good foundation for those students who will become the
driving force of future IR technologies.
There are very few resources for teaching and learning in IR, the major
problem which this book is designed to solve. The objective is to
provide ideas and practical experience of teaching and learning IR, for
those whose job requires them to teach in one form or another, and where
delivering IR courses is a major part of their working lives.
In this context of providing a higher profile for teaching and learning
as applied to IR, the co-editor of this book, Efthimis Efthimiathis, had
maintained a leading role in teaching and learning within the domain of
IR for a number of years. This book represents a posthumous example of
his efforts in the area, as he passed away in April 2011. This book, his
book, is dedicated to his memory.