Tefko Saracevic: What Do Science, Relevance in Information Science (VIDEO)

Relevance is a fundamental concept in information science. The aim of this presentation is to provide a historical perspective on two large questions: Why did relevance become a central notion of information science? and What did we learn about relevance through research in information science? As to the first question, there are no historical documents addressing it, thus conclusions are derivative. Relevance emerged as a central notion in information science because of extensive theoretical and practical concerns with and commitments to searching and not only with organization of information. In turn, searching was allowed using modern information technology. Aboutness is a fundamental notion related to organization of information, while relevance is a fundamental notion related to searching and retrieval of information. As to the second question there are more than 300+articles that contain experimental, empirical or observational data about relevance and about a dozen or so articles about relevance that are based on scholarly, primarily philosophical, argumentation. The relation of information retrieval testing to relevance and related research is explored. Also addressed is research on dynamics and situational aspects of relevance.