It’s another beautiful day at Lost Data Elementary School.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing and ...

What’s taking so long?

I can’t find my Spelling book.

"Bobby. What’s taking so long? Spelling time is about to start."

"I can’t find my Spelling book Sally. There’s just too much stuff to look through. How am I ever going to find it?"

Just then, a musical chime sounds and a strange man with a cape is standing next to Bobby and Sally.

This looks like a job for IR Man!

“This looks like a job for IR Man!” the stranger says.

“IR Man?  Who are you?” asks Sally.

“I help those who have an information retrieval need.”

“Come again?” Bobby asks puzzled.

“Hmm. Looks like I’m going to need some help on this one.”

Whoa, there’s another one.

You called, IR Man?

IR Man looks out the window and whistles with all his might.

Another musical chime sounds and a woman with a matching outfit appears out of nowhere.

“Whoa, there’s another one,” Billy says.

“You called, IR Man?”

Wow, where’d you pull that from?

Ah-hem...that’s not important right now.

“IR Woman, glad you could make it.  These children have an IR crisis and need our help.  But, they don’t know what Information Retrieval is.  Can you help me?”

“Sure thing, IR Man.  Just let me pull out my IR Chalkboard...ah, there we are.”

IR? Is that contagious?

Information Retrieval: Finding information you need inside a large group of data.

"Let’s talk about Information Retrieval or IR for short.”

“Yeah, what is it?  Is it catchy?” Billy asks.

“No, no.  It’s nothing like that.  IR is finding the information you need even when it is buried in a huge pile of other information.”

But what about my book?

Grandma's House

After thinking a moment, Sally smiles and says “Oh, like when I use my computer to look for where Grandma’s house is on a map?”

“That’s right Sally.  In that case, your information need is finding where Grandma’s house is and the pile of other information is all the other houses on the map.”

“Um, OK.  But what does that have to do with me finding my spelling book?”