The story of the rise of networked data through the evolution of archiving and digital storage.
2026 PROSE Award Winner: Computing and Information Sciences
Archiving Machines advances our understanding of memory, information, and data by charting the struggle between the computing technologies that archive data and the cultures of information that have led to platforms that assert control over its use. Amelia Acker examines the origins of data archives and the computing processes of storage, exchange, and transmission. Each chapter introduces data archiving processes that relate to the evolution of data sovereignty we experience today: from magnetic tape and timesharing computer models from the 1950s, to the establishment of data banks and the rise of database processing and managed data silos in the 1970s, to file structures and virtual containers in cloud-based information services over the past 40 years.
Contents Acknowledgements 1 Archiving Data 2 Data Punch: From Manual to Machine 3 Making Data Programmable 4 Data Out of Pocket: From Files to Apps 5 Making Data with a Cell Tower 6 Gatekeeping Access to Data Epilogue: Data at Rest Notes References Index
“This is an excellent volume for archivists, librarians, and other cultural heritage professionals and memory workers, as well as information scholars, historians of technology and politics, and students in these fields.” —Choice
The story of the rise of networked data through the evolution of archiving and digital storage.
2026 PROSE Award Winner: Computing and Information Sciences
Archiving Machines advances our understanding of memory, information, and data by charting the struggle between the computing technologies that archive data and the cultures of information that have led to platforms that assert control over its use. Amelia Acker examines the origins of data archives and the computing processes of storage, exchange, and transmission. Each chapter introduces data archiving processes that relate to the evolution of data sovereignty we experience today: from magnetic tape and timesharing computer models from the 1950s, to the establishment of data banks and the rise of database processing and managed data silos in the 1970s, to file structures and virtual containers in cloud-based information services over the past 40 years.
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgements 1 Archiving Data 2 Data Punch: From Manual to Machine 3 Making Data Programmable 4 Data Out of Pocket: From Files to Apps 5 Making Data with a Cell Tower 6 Gatekeeping Access to Data Epilogue: Data at Rest Notes References Index
Photos
Praise
“This is an excellent volume for archivists, librarians, and other cultural heritage professionals and memory workers, as well as information scholars, historians of technology and politics, and students in these fields.” —Choice
