Bibliography, metrics and data visualization: how may we compose shared contexts of information?

Abstract

Introduction: We understand that the careful labor of composing bibliographical contexts is a fundamental concern for Bibliography, and collaborates to develop a deeper understanding of the intertextuality between documents. Nevertheless, the idea of context can assume many inflexions, connected to varied approaches towards bibliographic material. We believe quali-quantitative methods and data visualization can be used for assembling bibliographical contexts to form renovated points of view.

Objective: To discuss how the idea of context relates to bibliographic methods, and how quali-quantitative methods and data visualization may offer new possibilities for assembling, assessing and sharing contexts of information.

Methodology: Bibliographical revision, case discussion. We intend to apply concepts bred from the digital methods of social research to the problems of Bibliography, while we discuss the advantages of visualization.

Results: Quali-quantitative methods may advance bibliographical studies by proposing varied entry points and a bottom-up approach towards building context, while data visualization may display these contexts, giving new visibility to intertextual aspects.

Conclusions: The seminar Arte da Bibliografia, that took place last December in Rio de Janeiro, organized by IBICT/COEP and research group Ecce Liber, proposed a rediscovery of Bibliography as a science, born beside medieval studies and growing into a wider field. In this article, we seeked to outline some fundamental concerns of the field in order to update its relevance to today’s informational landscape. One fundamental concern of bibliography that we chose to focus on, the emphasis in creating knowledge contexts from documents, was explored in the form of different postures or procedures that may equip Bibliography, conciliating in its major facets, textual Bibliography and the quantitative tools derived from bibliometrics, with the use of quali-quantitative methods.