Information retrieval consists of four main stages: Identifying the exact subject of the search; Locating this subject in a guide which refers the searcher to one or more documents; Locating the documents; Locating the required information in the documents.

— Douglas John Foskett, Classification and indexing in the social sciences (1963)

Source: http://ir.library.tohoku.ac.jp/re/bitstream/10097/17406/1/12_43.pdf

Also cited in Mei Hong (2006), p. 51.

Topics: learning