Revealing digital documents. Concealed structures in data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a research project aimed at analyzing the underlying structures of digital documents across technologies using a phenomenological approach, with implications for digital libraries and data preservation.

Contribution

It proposes a novel phenomenological methodology to identify common data structuring patterns across different digital formats and technologies.

Findings

Identification of universal data structuring patterns

Enhanced understanding of data organization for digital libraries

Potential improvements in long-term digital preservation

Abstract

This short paper gives an introduction to a research project to analyze how digital documents are structured and described. Using a phenomenological approach, this research will reveal common patterns that are used in data, independent from the particular technology in which the data is available. The ability to identify these patterns, on different levels of description, is important for several applications in digital libraries. A better understanding of data structuring will not only help to better capture singular characteristics of data by metadata, but will also recover intended structures of digital objects, beyond long term preservation.