Apply exploratory methods in bibliographic research

Since the advent of Google, query-based information retrieval has become increasingly popular with the general public, to the detriment of catalogue-based retrieval (initiated by Yahoo!). Many scientists are seduced by the simplicity of querying databases in natural language, much to the dismay of documentalists who advocate the use of structured queries to conduct quality bibliographic research.

We present here the advantages of exploratory methods for bibliographic research, which reconcile simplicity and efficiency by promoting the use of a controlled vocabulary and user interaction for the iterative construction of queries.