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Abstract : |
Relevance is a fundamental, though not completely un-system design, development and evaluation. However, derstood, concept for documentation, information sci- there was little agreement as to the exact nature of releence, and information retrieval. This article presents the history of relevance through an exhaustive review of the literature. Such history being very complex (about 160 papers are discussed), it is not simple to describe it in a comprehensible way. Thus, first of all a framework for vance and even less that it could be operationalized in systems or for the evaluation of systems.... this lack of agreement continues to an extent at the present. (Froehlich, 1994, p. 124) establishing a common ground is defined, and then the history itself is illustrated via the presentation in chronological order of the papers on relevance. The history is divided into three periods (Before 1958,? ? 1959?1976, This is an article on the history of relevance in the fields of documentation, information science and informa-tion retrieval. Why to write an article on the history of and 1977?present) and, inside each period, the papers on relevance are analyzed under seven different aspects (methodological foundations, different kinds of rele-relevance? How to write it? The first question is answered by the following points: vance, beyond-topical criteria adopted by users, modes for expression of the relevance judgment, dynamic na-ture of relevance, types of document representation, and agreement among different judges). j The above three citations witness that relevance is one of the central concepts, if not the central concept, for documentation, information science, and information retrieval (IR in the following): In the first citation, Saracevic maintains that relevance is the reason for the, |
