Comparative analysis of information retrieval and analysis of open access tools from an educational concept

In the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics, and Physics in the Republic of Cuba the course "Databases and digital Library" is a discipline in the Master's degree program of Applied Cybernetics. An essential part of the course is the creation of documental databases starting from information retrieval from the Internet. To equip the laboratories required for better learning, the most suitable tools for information retrieval are needed, both from an educational point of view as well as the easiness for their acquisition. Therefore, the characteristics to evaluate these tools and the methodology for selecting them were defined. As a result, of the thirteen recovery tools and data analysis from free softwares available to be downloaded, the following eight tools were selected: Lemur Toolkit with Indri, Sphinx, WebSphinx with Rapid Miner, Solr / Lucene / Hadoop / Mahout, Terrier and Dragon, which guaranteed the quality of the course and the connection with other courses in the Master's degree program.