All the red‐legged partridges …or… 99.5% retrieval of scientific information

The word “retrieve” means “to call to mind again, to find again” or, in hunting terms (obsolete), “to discover again game once sprung, to flush partridges a second time”. Perhaps the ancient usage with respect to birds is the one which gives the clearest idea of the modern meaning to documentalists. “Retrieval” has come to signify the flushing again of such beautiful partridges as journals, books, reports which have found obscure resting places in the dense forests of modern libraries. But a new concept has been added, namely that in each operation the partridges found again should be of a specific kind. “99.5 percent retrieval” now means that if there are 1000 red‐legged partridges in the forest, 995 of these can be sprung again at will

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