The advent of new information retrieval (IR) technologies and approaches to storage and retrieval provide communities with previously unheard of opportunities for mass documentation, digitization, and the recording of information in all its forms. This book introduces and contextualizes these developments and looks at supporting research in IR, the debates, theories and issues. Contributed by an international team of experts, each authored chapter provides a snapshot of changes in the field, as well as the importance of developing innovation, creativity and thinking in IR practice and research. Key discussion areas include: browsing in new information environments classification revisited: a web of knowledge approaches to fiction retrieval research music information retrieval research folksonomies, social tagging and information retrieval digital information interaction as semantic navigation assessing web search machines: a webometric approach. The questions raised are of significance to the whole international library and information science community, and this is essential reading for LIS professionals , researchers and students, and for all those interested in the future of IR.