A method and apparatus for use in an information retrieval system is provided, which derives related informational items that have a usage based relationship strength, and which results in an efficient and more accurate dynamic relationship association between informational items. This system comprises the steps for detecting a selection of at least a first informational item and a second informational item in an information retrieval session. A relationship type is assigned based on characteristic similarities between the first informational item and the second informational item. Additionally, a relationship strength is assigned based on historical frequency of the consecutive selection of the first and second informational items and providing an access to the second informational item upon detection of the first being accessed by a user of the information retrieval system. Also, in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the extraction of textual database fields; the application of multiple text classification algorithms; the merging of the algorithm results; the encoding of the merged results as a Bayesian-type link; the use of feedback methods to weight, prune and age the relationship link serves to automate and enhance the process of classification in an information retrieval system.