Organisation of Multimedia Resources: Principles and Practice of Information Retrieval

Citation

Rowley, J. (1999), "Organisation of Multimedia Resources: Principles and Practice of Information Retrieval", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 7, pp. 52-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.7.52.8

This book aims to draw together the complementary principles of information retrieval and multimedia database design. It explores the issues associated with information retrieval in situations such as image databases, access to sound recordings through a Web browser, or the storage and retrieval of company archives in a computerised database. The book is intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of information science, electronic publishing, records management and librarianship, and computer science students and researchers.

Full multimedia systems are dependent on digital technology. They use computers for the integrated storage, retrieval and display of information in the form of words, numbers, images and sounds. While such full multimedia systems are the future, present systems exist in a range of different formats including those associated with text, audio, image and moving image. Four different levels of integration are identified. This variety of media makes the task facing the author in relation to the exploration of basic concepts particularly challenging.

Chapter 1 defines the scope of the book; it explores the nature of multimedia systems, and offers examples. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 revisit the principle of information retrieval in this context. Chapter 2 explores the nature of multimedia items. In the days of printed books and journals, this chapter would have been largely redundant, but the complexity of types of multimedia items requires that units for retrieval or organisation are identified. Chapter 3 explores some of the established concepts of information retrieval; these include pre‐ coordinate and post‐coordinate approaches. Chapter 4 addresses the issue of surrogates and encompasses, for example, the function of surrogates, surrogate standards, access points and AACR2 and ISBD. Chapter 5 deals with subject content, including subject analysis, representation, codes and standards. Chapter 6 outlines the alternative electronic data structures in the context of multimedia items. Chapters 7 and 8 deal, respectively, with visual and audio information. These chapters demonstrate how the concepts and principles explored in earlier chapters can be applied.

The book offers a perspective on information retrieval that will be particularly important with the growth of multimedia databases. The style is readable and the content is clearly structured. A wide range of examples from different multimedia systems, including many Internet‐based systems, are used throughout the book. The book is a useful addition to the literature on information retrieval.