On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 4:56 AM, Max L. Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> Modern Information retrieval is certainly an authoritative text on IR. You
might be good searching for ACM SIGIR references on TFxIDF or BM25 by
Stephen Robertson and Karen sparck-jones. From the 70s. These were retrieval
algorithms that significantly improved precision and recall of keyword
search systems.

 Just wanted to add that the SIGIR
museum<http://www.sigir.org/museum/contents.html>includes [Spark
Jones, Karen, ed. (1981). Information Retrieval Experiment.
Butterworths. ]

There are several chapters by KSJ , including a review of tests from
1958-1978, as well as separate chapter on the Cranfield tests.

There are different issues involved in evaluating interactive information
retrieval systems.
 See [Kelly, Diane (2009). "Methods for Evaluating Interactive Information
Retrieval Systems with
Users<http://ils.unc.edu/%7Edianek/FnTIR-Press-Kelly.pdf>".
Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval Vol 3, Nos. 1-2, pp. 1-224].

Of course, the  only true measure of an IR system is whether it gets ever
searcher their documents, and saves their time..

Simon