Jason Thomale wrote :
> The fact of the butterfly being in the wild is a datum. We could
> say, number_of_butterflies_in_wild = 1. That's your piece of data.
> The butterfly *itself* is not (at least, based on the commonly
> understood definition of "data").
OK
What should I say to the entomologist researcher who points to those
lovely beasts fluttering around and says : "*Those* are my data." ?
Maybe : "Sorry, Jack, that's not data flying around there ; that's units
of analysis." ?
:-)
- Laval Hunsucker
Amsterdam, Nederland
------ Original Message ----
From: Laval Hunsucker <amoinsde_at_yahoo.com>
To: Next generation catalogs for libraries <NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
Sent: Tue, January 19, 2010 4:11:41 PM
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] LIBER Quarterly Article on Europeana
> A jar containing jellybeans is not itself a jellybean.
But it IS an abomination :-).
- Laval Hunsucker
Amsterdam, Nederland
----- Original Message ----
From: "Thomale, J" <j.thomale_at_TTU.EDU>
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Sent: Tue, January 19, 2010 4:02:52 PM
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] LIBER Quarterly Article on Europeana
> > A butterfly in the wild is not data.
>
> Why not ?
>
> -- or at least a *datum*.
The fact of the butterfly being in the wild is a datum. We could say, number_of_butterflies_in_wild = 1. That's your piece of data. The butterfly *itself* is not (at least, based on the commonly understood definition of "data").
And I would say the same thing in response to Simon Spero's assertion that documents == data. Documents aren't data. Documents *contain* data, but they are not themselves the data. A jar containing jellybeans is not itself a jellybean.
(If we were talking about "information" rather than data, I don't think we would be having this conversation. I don't know anybody that would say that a butterfly is information. It carries information, but the butterfly itself is a tangible thing; information is intangible.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data
With that said, I do think we use the term "metadata" differently than its literal interpretation ("data about data"). When a librarian talks about metadata, it's pretty much understood that they mean "data about documents," isn't it? Library metadata == most other professions' data.
Jason Thomale
Metadata Librarian
Texas Tech University Libraries
Received on Tue Jan 19 2010 - 10:27:40 EST