This second edition of Heting Chu's popular work on information representation and retrieval (IRR) features numerous updates and revisions, including coverage of taxonomies, folksonomies, ontologies, social tagging, search/retrieve web service, and next generation OPACs. The chapter on artificial intelligence has been significantly expanded to include a host of related topics such as automatic summarization, question answering, natural language searching, and the semantic web.

As in the first edition, Chu emphasizes principles and fundamentals. She reviews key concepts and major developmental stages of the field, and then systematically examines information representation methods, IRR languages, retrieval techniques and models, and internet retrieval systems. In addition, she explains the retrieval of multilingual, multimedia, and hyperstructured information and explores the user dimension and evaluation issues.

"...a solid, reliable, well-laid out and typeset introduction to key concepts in information storage and retrieval."
                                                                                                                          -Charles Oppenheim

"I rarely write book reviews, but as an educator and author I liked this book so much that I could not resist spreading the word about it. ... One may wonder how so many issues can be covered in a 250-page book ... Well, the book proves that it can be done very well, providing the essential information in a concise style ..."

-Péter Jacsó

"Professor Chu has done an outstanding job, dealing with virtually all facets of the field, intellectual and automated, covering both input and output activities, and not neglecting the historical context. An impressive achievement."

-F. W. Lancaster