Modern information retrieval: A brief overview

For thousands of years people have realized the importance of archiving and finding information. With the advent of computers, it became possible to store large amounts of information; and finding useful information from such collections became a necessity. The field of Information Retrieval (IR) was born in the 1950s out of this necessity. Over the last forty years, the field has matured considerably. Several IR systems are used on an everyday basis by a wide variety of users. This article is a brief overview of the key advances in the field of Information Retrieval, and a description of where the state-of-the-art is at in the field. 1 Brief History The practice of archiving written information can be traced back to around 3000 BC, when the Sumerians designated special areas to store clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions. Even then the Sumerians realized that proper organization and access to the archives was critical for efficient use of information. They developed special classifications to identify every tablet and its content. (Se