Towards data modelling in information retrieval

The diffusion of automated information retrieval (IR) ap plications and of applications which share many of the peculiarities of IR applications is increasing. The demand for these types of applications draws attention to the lack of methodologies available for IR data design. The data modell ing of an IR application, that is, the data modelling of the IR part of a complete information system, has not yet been approached and studied as a complete process and in a struc tured way.

The first part of this paper introduces the motivations and the scope of the DIRD (Design of Information Retrieval Data) project, which is devoted to the development of an environ ment for the design of advanced applications of IR.

The second part of the paper addresses the design of the IR part (or IR application) of an information system. The concep tual paradigm necessary for the design of advanced IR applica tions is investigated. The Entity Relationship (ER) approach is compared with that conceptual modelling paradigm and is examined as a candidate data model for the conceptual design of IR data. A new ER approach is then introduced: this new approach extends the constructs of the ER model to manage the complexity of IR data. Two design examples are given to present the use of the new ER approach in designing IR data.