Designing Tools for Macro-Scale Data Analysis in the History of Science

Our project involves developing a new kind of digital resource to capture the history of research at scientific facilities in the era of the “New Big Science.” The extent, scope, and diversity of research at such facilities makes keeping track of it difficult to compile using traditional historical methods and linear narratives; there are too many overlapping and bifurcating threads. In this talk, we will discuss existing methods of data collection and curation for a specific case project, the National Synchrotron Light Source Digital Archive. We are especially interested in the functional potential, in the context of this kind of tool development, of the humanistic concepts of narrative, metaphor, and performance.