---
owner:
    hid: 340
    name: Tim Thompson
    url: https://github.com/bigdata-i523/hid340
paper1:
    abstract: >
        Research libraries and archives have played a longstanding
        role in information management and access. In the second half
        of the twentieth century, libraries were at the forefront of
        automation and networked access to information. Since the
        advent of the internet, however, they have failed to keep pace
        with technological advances and currently face serious
        challenges in serving the evolving needs of researchers, whose
        information-seeking strategies are now shaped by internet
        search engines and online social media applications. To remain
        relevant in the current information landscape, libraries and
        archives must implement new strategies for converting legacy
        metadata to new formats that can add value to the research
        process. Although the data and metadata produced by libraries
        and archives may not always qualify, prima facie, as big data,
        an awareness among information professionals of the tools,
        techniques, and affordances of big data can help make library
        services more relevant to researchers.
    author:
        - Timothy A. Thompson
    chapter: Media
    hid:
        - 340
    status: Oct 25 17 100%
    title: Big Data Analytics for Research Libraries and Archives
    url: https://github.com/bigdata-i523/hid340/paper1
paper2:
    review: 100% Nov 8 17
    abstract: >
        Decentralized systems such as Bitcoin, the Interplanetary File
        System (IPFS), and Ethereum have been designed with the
        intention of reengineering the architecture of online
        information systems, minimizing exposure to centralized points
        of failure, and creating new social models for the exchange of
        data--which is posited as a valuable asset in and of itself.
        Can these kinds of systems also support big data analytics and
        processing? If so, what stands to be gained by taking a
        blockchain-based approach to big data? Efforts to integrate
        blockchains into big data pipelines must address the
        inevitable tradeoffs between security and scalability.
        BigchainDB is a new decentralized database framework that adds
        blockchain-based features, such as immutability and asset
        management, to traditional NoSQL distributed databases.
        Although it is still in the early stages of development,
        BigchainDB promises to make a significant contribution to the
        ways in which data is shared and managed at scale.
    author:
        - Timothy A. Thompson
    chapter: Technology
    hid:
        - 340
    status: 100% Nov 8 17
    title: "BigchainDB: A Big Database for the Blockchain?"
    url: https://github.com/bigdata-i523/hid340/paper2
project:
    review: Dec 4 2017
    author:
        - Timothy A. Thompson
    hid:
        - 340
    title: >
        New Approaches to Managing Metadata at Scale in Research
        Libraries
    abstract: >
        The analysis of big data often relies on distributed storage
        and computation; however, access to big data--and to
        the platforms capable of managing and processing it--
        continues to be largely centralized. Centralization is
        particularly evident in the case of the metadata produced and
        disseminated by academic and research libraries. Libraries
        typically produce and share their catalog records by uploading
        them to a central data warehouse, which can then be
        searched for existing records. This centralized model, which
        operates on the basis of membership fees, has the advantage of
        scalability and availability, but it comes at the cost of a loss of
        control over the data itself, and it entails acquiescence to a
        business model that, in effect, charges libraries for serving
        their own data back to them. The blockchain-based database
        BigchainDB (written in Python) provides an alternative, peer-
        to-peer platform that would allow libraries to share their
        data directly and to benefit from features such as data
        immutability and an asset-based transactional model. A working
        prototype installation of a BigchainDB node has the potential
        to provide an example of how libraries can abandon centralized
        models for managing their data at scale.
    url: https://github.com/bigdata-i523/hid340/project
    type: project
    status: Dec 7 17 66%
    chapter: Media