Designed to be a foundation work, this book about information storage and retrieval includes discussions of theory as well as descriptions of practice. It is intended for: (1) students at both the graduate and non-graduate level who are beginning formal studies of librarianship/information science; (2) staff of library/information units who have moved into librarianship/information science and who may have relatively high qualifications in other kinds of work, but need to formalize and extend their practical knowledge of information retrieval; and (3) students or staff who have an information filing and finding aspect in their work, without necessarily being concerned primarily with library/information work. The book includes the following chapters: (1) Basic Definitions; (2) File Organization: Basic Factors; (3) The Representation File: Content and Arrangement; (4) Content Approaches; (5) Constructing Your Own Scheme; (6) Non-Content Approaches; (7) Physical Forms of File; (8) Searching; (9) Design, Organization, and Evaluation; and (10) Indexes for Individual Documents. References relating to each chapter are provided. (THC)