NON-SEMANTIC ATTRIBUTES OF DOCUMENTS AND THEIR IMPLICATION TO IR

Abstract

Indexing and searching mechanism based mainly upon semantic attributes of documents has been showing certain limitations, and the function of the non-semantic attributes and their implication to information retrieval and system design are not yet fully explored. By summarizing the non-semantic characteristics of documents and by analyzing them in terms of information needs, information seeking and use as well, the authors attempt to explore their potentialities to information retrieval and to information system design as well.