Competency E
Design, query and evaluate information retrieval systems
Information retrieval is a major aspect of the work of librarians and developing tools that help us do our tasks better will become more important in the future. The knowledge of designing, querying, and evaluating different information retrieval systems is an indispensable skill in any profession as many different types of information retrieval technologies will be offered for different reasons and deciding on one can have significant effects. This competency has three different aspects integrated with it. Designing and information retrieval system can have many different parts to it but the most fundamental is creating a database and deciding on how the items in that database are going to be held. Databases are nearly ubiquitous and librarians must have a firm understanding of the impact their choices in database design have on future decisions. Understanding how to query a database and information retrieval system is also essential and librarians must take the time to learn the tools that are within their reach and use them most effectively. Evaluating information retrieval systems involves evaluating all new pieces of technology that the library decides it wants to integrate and understand what kinds of impacts moving to that type of standard can have.
This competency illustrates that as librarians we must strive to understand the tools that we employ. Not understanding the fundamental processes within our tools puts librarians at risk of being dependent on outside forces such as proprietary companies selling turn-key solutions such as various online public access catalogs and other types of software required to complete our goals as information professionals. Librarians have the time and understanding to develop advanced skills in conducting deep searches using complex database queries. Librarians can also assist in making newer technologies easier to use by making those queries more accessible to the public through tools employed through different technologies. Due to the ubiquity of databases having the skill and the know how to look under the hood of programs and understand how they store their information can be helpful if the programs are alterable.
Through my time at SLIS I have reviewed literature on creating databases in LIBR 202 and through a group project we created two different databases. The first database was a beginning project to understand the considerations of creating a database. The purpose was to index common items in order to develop a meal plan that would be nutritious for children. During this time we learned about the importance of database work and how to design a database.
The group utilized a wiki and shared a variety of different canned goods and input the data into a DBTextworks database. As our first attempt the group learned that we had different interpretations on how to collect the data. We had to settle on how to represent numbers, weights, and amounts, and how thorough we wanted our database to be. We settled on canned goods for our first database because the nutritional information guides on cans seemed to be well thought-out and complete for a variety of different foods. The second database we created was based on a series of different research articles on information seeking behaviors. We wanted to make a system that made it simple to search for different information fields.
The importance’s of information retrieval has come into play in all of the technology courses I have taken. This is due to the fact that many integral technologies are databases with a cover over them. For my advanced information technology tools course we designed a calculator program that saved our queries into a MySQL database. MySQL resembles many types of relational databases and supports querying utilizing the SQL language. In the course we designed functions that would manipulate the program sending specific commands to the server. These commands consisted of connecting to the database, writing the different amounts, adding them together and returning a value afterwards the database was cleared. Another example was developing web forms, which we learned we must write the program so that it only allows input related to the form questions and throw out anything unrelated such as malicious code or information not related to the field. The SQL language is one that is common to many databases as a means to pass queries with different effects from creating a database table, adding fields to it, deleting rows or columns, and many other options.
An information retrieval system is the librarian’s tool and understanding the pros and cons of each tool is essential for libraries to grow. Understanding what an information retrieval system consists of is important for many reasons. The more librarians are in tune with their tools the more likely they will be able to improve upon these same tools. Librarian managers must make decisions on what information retrieval systems to invest in and whether they offer the best resources for the price. In other ways information professionals must be concerned with the same precautions. It is important to use the right tool for the right job at an appropriate price. Many libraries are faced with providing their communities the services and access to information that is relevant but all libraries must be concerned with the cost and ease of use of information retrieval tools. While at SJSU SLIS I have navigated through many different types of information retrieval databases and understand that they all differ in meaningful ways. Some place a focus on powerful searching with minimal assistance and others focus on ease of use though lack in other areas.
I have been successful in designing, querying, and evaluating information retrieval systems and continue to see new opportunities. This ability continues to be incredibly useful in day-to-day use as our world becomes inundated with new programs built upon databases. In many ways our world is dominated by the concept of databases for every type of information there is a place for it. As librarians we are in the perfect position to assist others in understanding how their systems work and improve upon them.