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Article ID: CBB487066798

Tell Data from Meta: Tracing the Origins of Big Data, Bibliometrics, and the OPAC (2017)

Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 32
Issue: 1
Pages: 224-240

DOI: 10.1086/694228

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/694228

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This essay discusses “Big Data” as a historical phenomenon with a long trajectory, dating back to the ancient library of Alexandria and its methods to counter information overload. The essay looks at different situations in which the proliferation of data posed problems and focuses on the development of systems and techniques—for example, bibliometrics—to cope with this abundance. After a brief inquiry into the origins of Big Data as a phenomenon, I will explore a distinction that is necessary to grasp the concept of Big Data, and which proves imperative in order to cope with the consequences of information overload. The distinction between data and metadata will be discussed and developed by dint of the history of the electronic library catalog called OPAC, which fuses two strands of Big Data: quantification and automatization.

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Article Bruno J. Strasser; Paul N. Edwards (2017) Big Data Is the Answer … But What Is the Question?. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 328-345). unapi

Article Elena Aronova; Christine von Oertzen; David Sepkoski (2017) Introduction: Historicizing Big Data. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-17). unapi

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