Information retrieval and hypertext: competing technologies or complementary access methods

Abstract. Information retrieval typically involves accessing textual information from a database in response to a user's vague information need. Hypertext or hypermedia, on the other hand, involves a user browsing through a database of textual or multimedia information in response to a variety of types of information need. Thus information retrieval can be said to have a searching metaphor while hypertext has a browsing analogy. Initially, these two technologies for information access appear to be very different, almost competitive in nature. In this paper information retrieval systems are briefly reviewed and hypertext systems are also examined. These two techniques for accessing information have been integrated into a prototype system which is described. The system dynamically generates guided tours in response to a user's query and the tour guides the user through the hypertext. Some experiments reporting on the effectiveness of this as an information access strategy are given.