NETWORKED INFORMATION RESOURCE DISCOVERY - AN OVERVIEW OF CURRENT ISSUES

Users need a new class of information retrieval systems to help them u tilize effectively the increasingly vast selection of networked inform ation resources becoming available on the Internet. These systems-usua lly called Network Information Discovery and Retrieval (NIDR) systems- must operate in a highly demanding, very large-scale distributed envir onment that encompasses huge numbers of autonomously managed and extre mely heterogeneous resources, The design of successful NIDR systems de mands a synthesis of technologies and practices from computer science, computer-communications networking, information science, librarianshi p, and information management, This paper discusses the range of poten tial functional requirements for information resource discovery and se lection, issues involved in describing and classifying network resourc es to support discovery and selection processes, and architectural fra meworks for collecting and managing the information bases involved, It also includes a survey and analysis of selected operational prototype s and production systems.