Information Retrieval: A Fuzzy Perspective

Retrieval of meaningful and relevant information from any data repository has always been a major challenge of any Information Retrieval system from the early ages of computing. Earliest Information Retrieval systems were designed for Libraries and for internal search of big organizations. Last 20 years has seen a drastic change of paradigm shift of Information Retrieval systems from stand-alone system to online systems. More and more information of Commercial organizations, Academic and research Institutions are going online which in turns is responsible for an exponential growth of users seeking this online information. Searching meaningful and relevant information from a sea of this unstructured, inconsistent and fast changing data is a challenging task for today's Information Retrieval systems. The complexity of this challenge is further increased by the users who are most of the time uncertain about his/her own information need. Fuzzy Logic has established itself as one of the main methodologies to deal with such kind of uncertainty. This short survey paper is an attempt to find some challenges of Information Retrieval system in today's scenario and the use of fuzzy methodologies in today's Information Retrieval systems.