Workshop on Scientific Archives in the 21th CenturyOr

Workshop on the Scientific Archives for the next 4 Generations

Science Archives over the Past CenturiesOr

Science Archives over the past 125 Generations

J. Zender

26 April 2006ESA/RSSD

Study Goals

Were people* in previous centuries aware of ‘record preservation’ (who)? What was the approach towards ‘record preservation’, in respect to

technology, media, politics? What was the environment, in which the ‘record preservation’ took place,

e.g. who did finance this work? Why were the records preserved? Can we deduce from the past for the preservation of instrumental data in

natural sciences today?

People*: scientists in the widest sense, monks, historians, etc

This presentation does not cover what we can do with this records, e.g. find the star of Bethlehem, compute deltaT, comet Halley, …

Study is restricted to data records obtained from ‘instrumental/visual’ observations.

Some Definitions*

Archives An archive refers to a collection of records, and also refers to the location in which these records are kept. Archives are made up of records which

have been created during the course of an individual or organization's life. In general an archive consists of records which have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation. Records, which may be in any media, are normally unpublished, unlike books and other publications. Archives may also be generated by large organizations such as corporations and governments. The highest level of organization of records in an archive is known as the fonds. Archives are distinct from libraries insofar as archives hold records which are unique. Archives can be described as holding information "by-products" of activities, while libraries hold specifically authored information "products". The word 'archives' is the correct terminology, whereas 'archive' as a noun or a verb is related to computer science. [1]

The study and practice of organizing, preserving, and providing access to information and materials in archives is called archival science.

The word archives is derived from the Greek arkhé meaning government or order (compare an-archy, mon-archy). The word originally developed from the Greek "arkheion" which refers to the home or dwelling of the Archon, in which important official state documents were filed and interpreted under the authority of the Archon.

The word "archives" can refer to any organised body of records fixed on media. The management of archives is essential for effective day-to-day organisational decision making, and even for the survival of organisations. Archives were well developed by the ancient Chinese, the ancient Greeks, and ancient Romans. Modern archival thinking has many roots in the French Revolution.

Science ‘Science’ in the broadest sense, refers to any system of objective knowledge. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring

knowledge based on the scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research.

Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:

Natural sciences, which study natural phenomena, including biological life;

Social sciences, which study human behavior and societies

Formal sciences, including mathematics

These fields are empirical sciences, which means the knowledge must be based on observable phenomena and capable of being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions.

*definitions mostly from wikipedia

Archiving is the intelligent back-up of selected objects (datasets, items etc.) that no longer need to be accessed on a regular basis within the computing system. These files are removed from the on-line disk storage to a lower cost media such as tape or optical disk.Archiving to the archiving profession could mean maintaining data FOREVER or for Long Term (LE) preservation be that 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 or 1,000 or more years.

Fact or Fiction? - A new evolutionary digital data storage process - January 2006 (Laurie Varendorff ARMA)

Archivist, deals with the content of the records

Conservator, deals with the physical makeup of the records

Records over the Centuries

Observables Sun spots, comets, meteor showers, (super)novae, eclipses (Sun,

Moon) Cultures

Arabia (Babylonian, Egypt), Far East (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japan), Europe (Greek, Romans, …)

Generations: Ancient (1100BC to 400, 60 generations) Medivial (400 to 1500, 44 generations) Recent (after invention of optics, ~1500, 25 generations)

Men history is not older than 130 generations!

Data records from the past are available!

Are we taking the measures to preserve even for the next two

generations?

Who? Why? What?

ancient medieval recent

Far East

Arabic

European

“A Chinese emperor was theoretically responsible for the orderly functioning of the entire cosmos as well as that limited part of it that constituted human society. Unusual terrestrial or celestial phenomena of any kind were thus prima facie evidence of his failure to fulfill this role… was more than enough to cause severe disquiet in court circles.” see [1]

“Two occurrences of meteor showers were associated by chroniclers with important events in the life of Prophet Mohammad and were thus regarded as good omens. This may be one of the reasons why later Islamic chroniclers continued to record such events and regularly refer to the two original showers.” see [4]

Who? Why? What?

ancient medieval recent

Far East

Arabic

European

“Because of the zodiacal sign Scorpio is a bad omen for the Islamic religion, they bitterly fought each other in great wars and many of their great countries were destroyed. …. At the time when the spectacle (natyzak) appeared calamity and destruction occurred which lasted for many years afterwards….” see [3]

“The reliable section (Pars Altera) of the chronicle of the Benedictine monastery of St. Gallen covers the period from AD919 to 1044. Like the chronicle of Benevento, it is mainly concerned with local affairs, although it makes frequent reference to major European events.” see [3]

French Revolution

“On 15 March 1794 the anatomist F. Vicq D’Azyr published these lines and voiced a new opinion regarding the evaluation of a nation’s cultural and scientific heritage after the convulsion brought about by the French Revolution in the cultural and scientific institutions of the old regime. The closing of the royal academies in July 1793 had forced scientists to seek new forms of institutional organization and, moreover, to justify the social value of science

and technology to the Republican authorities and the country’s representatives.” See [9] ‘Science’ and herewith scientists gained in their reputation through the French Revolution. It became obvious that you can

win wars with scientists.

A specific question

Data record from Lavoisier (1743-1794)

Are original data records available from

Archimedes ( 287BC - 212 BC)

Newton (1643 - 1727)

Lavoisier ( 1743 - 1794)

H. Alfven (1908 - )

Mike A’Hearn’s PhD ?

This questions needs more time to find correct answers.

“Why in the hell do you want to have these data?”

“What do you want to do with them?”

That’s exactly what we ask the data producers!

Findings - although very preliminary!

Who? Kind of ‘civil servant’ Religious people Rich people

What? Just ‘book keeping’ (chronicles, manuscripts) No special preparation No indications found on awareness, surely not before French

Revolution (afterwards … ) Why did the individual preserve data records?

His function (civil servant, chronicle writer) To uses the records himself!

Why did the society preserve data records? Religious reasons Emperors power (chronicles)

Findings II - even more preliminary!

I could not find any argument that somebody ever preserved data* records as they were claimed to be unique Except for the last 1.5 generations, and also here I am not sure

about I could not find any hint that somebody ever preserved data

records with the intention that somebody in the future could do data analysis Except for the last 1.5 generations, and also here I am not sure

about

Data*: remember, that data is used in the sense of measurements from observations.

Why did they preserve all these DVDs?

Scenario from 2020

Conclusion

This topic needs much more investigations and research! All statements done in this poster are very preliminary.

Data records from previous generations are very valuable, as they are constantly used in different scientific disciplines.

What have I learned from these investigations: [a] Previous generations were not aware of ‘data record preservation’.[b] However, data records are available and are used continuously,

when the data are unique![c] The uniqueness of the data is not predictable at the time of

observationtherefore

I propose to [1] Preserve all original and calibrated data records from space

instrumentation measurements for future generations[2] try to define ‘uniqueness’ and create rules between uniqueness

criteria and data preservation efforts.

Way ahead - advice

Preserve all scientific measurements from space instrumentation on optical MICROFILM in ASCII format

References:

[1] Halley’s Comet and the ‘Ghost’ Event of 10 BC, C. Cullen, Q. Jl R astr. Soc. (1991),32,113-119

[2] A Revised Catalogue of Far Eastern Observations of Sunspots (165BC to AD1928), K.K.C. Yau and F.R. Stephenson, Q. Jl R. astr. Soc (1988), 29, 175-197

[3] The supernova of AD 1006, F.R. Stephenson, D.H. Clark, D.F. Crawford, Mon. Not R. astr. Soc (1977) 180, 567-584

[4] A Catalogue of Meteor Showers in Medieval Arab Chronicles, W.S. Rada and F.R. Stephenson, Q. J. R astr Soc (1992) 33, 4-16[

[5] Comets - A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, and Folklore” D. Yeomans, Wiley, New York, 1991,

[6] Cometography: A Catalog of Comets: Ancient – 1799”, Volume 1, Gary W. Kronk

[7] Marco Beretta, Panopticum Lavoisier, private communication

[8] Panopticon Lavoisier Apresentation, Marco Beretta & Andrea Scotti

[9] Defining the boundaries of scientific heritage: archaeology, historiography and manual expertise, M. Beretta