This book takes a unique approach to information retrieval by laying down the foundations for a modern algebra of information retrieval based on lattice theory. All major retrieval methods developed so far are described in detail, along with Web retrieval algorithms, and the author shows that they all can be treated elegantly in a unified formal way, using lattice theory as the one basic concept. The book¿s presentation is characterized by an engineering-like approach.

Sándor Dominich is the George Pólya Professor of Computer Science, Head of the Information Retrieval Research Group, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary. His research interests include retrieval models, formal aspects, foundations, effectiveness measurement, and applications. He authored three books, including "Mathematical Foundations of Information Retrieval" (Springer, 2001) and over seventy research papers. He is a founding co-organiser of the ACM SIGIR MF/IR Workshop series 2000-2005, and ICTIR International Conference 2007 (both together with C.J. van Rijsbergen). He has served as a programme committee member of major Information Retrieval conferences.