Big Data and Their Impact on Libraries

Abstract

Academic libraries have a large amount of primary and secondary data with academic content. These contents can be linked and supplemented with freely available data on the Internet and generate benefit for their customers. This includes, for example, the date for indexing of library holdings as well as customer data and their media usage for the development of new helpful services. Thus, methods and knowledge of Big Data applications are required. With the help of Big Data technologies, these added values can be created. However, this presupposes that the limitations and possibilities of Big Data technology are being taken into account and that correlations are accepted as sufficiently accurate. Especially classical librarians have to cut back on their accuracy requirements. This paper gives an overview of the possibilities and chances of using large data amounts in libraries, presents hypotheses and explains practical examples.