Abstract

With the increased creation, distribution, and use of image in context of the development of digital technologies and internet, research endeavors have accumulated drastically. As two dominant aspects of image retrieval have been considered content-based and concept-based image retrieval, concept-based image retrieval has been focused in the field of Library and Information Science. This study aims to systematically review the accumulated research of image retrieval from the perspective of LIS field. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, two data sets were prepared: a total of 282 image retrieval research papers from Web of Science, and a total of 35 image retrieval research from DBpia in Kore for comparison. For data analysis, systematic review methodology was utilized with bibliographic analysis of individual research papers in the data sets. The findings of this study demonstrated that two sub-areas, image indexing and description and image needs and image behavior, were dominant. Among these sub-areas, the results indicated that there were emerging areas such as collective indexing, image retrieval in terms of multi-language and multi-culture environments, and affective indexing and use. For the user-centered image retrieval research, college and graduate students were found prominent user groups for research while specific user groups such as medical/health related users, artists, and museum users were found considerably. With the comparison with the distribution of sub-areas of image retrieval research in Korea, considerable similarities were found. The findings of this study expect to guide research directions and agenda for future.