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Natural Language Versus Controlled Vocabulary in Information Retrieval: A Case Study in Soil Mechanics

The effectiveness of two information retrieval tools, namely, thesaurus and natural language, in an information retrieval system has been studied. A database SOILSC was created using an HP3000/58 series minicomputer and MINISIS software. Records of articles totaling 17,918 published in various journals, received in the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) library (Pune, India) since 1988, have been stored. The information needs of a soil mechanics group have been formulated using thesaurus and natural language into 81 search strategies. In consultation with the user, relevance of the retrieved documents was assessed and, recall (R) and precision (P) values were calculated. Since both thesaurus and natural language have shown identical performance in information retrieval, a combination of these two have been suggested for making searches and providing relevant information. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.