Between quantity and quality. Big Data and the value of data interpretation

The digital revolution has dramatically transformed the way in which information is produced, stored, and distributed. Today we have large amounts of data, of various types and of varying degrees of quality, that we find it hard to frame in predefined categories since it is very different from the data that we have used and interacted with so far: the so-called Big Data. Libraries, especially research libraries, are becoming more aware of what their strategic role can be in preserving and organising this explosive amount of information to make it universally available for research and future generations. It is not just a matter of building a new and costly infrastructure, but also of readjusting the library system as a function of new content: since now libriaries deal expecially with books, but in the future they will have to cope with all the available data. Libraries can and are assuming a key role in making this information opinions more useful, visible, and accessible, such as creating taxonomies, metadata designing schemes, systematising and retrieval methods. The impact Big Data can have on libraries does not imply only a rethinking of the role librarians may play in classifying and presenting Big Data cleansed of their noise, but it also requires a reflection on the use of Big Data in the evaluation or research in the library to improve the effectiveness of their service or, more generally, the impact of libraries on society, exploiting the data deluge to make better decisions and optimise their performance. This paper focuses on this aspect by essentially addressing to two issues mentioned in the title: the former is methodological and relates to the way in which the concepts of quantity and quality change in the new paradigm of Big Data; the latter is related to the value data interpretation takes on in this changing landscape characterised by a flood of data.