Database

CONSTITUTIVE

In the 9/11 context, for a terrorist watch list, "...the database form in fact helps constitute the objects it purportedly represents" (Gates, 2011, p. 120).

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

"And while the database might appear to provide an empirical and technically neutral means of classifying and organizing information, in reality, every system of classification is itself a process of social construction that involves particular choices and ways of defining and differentiating classes that do not exist as such prior to the development of the system" (p. 114). Classification is a question of "visibility...[and] knowledge and truth production" rather than some material reality it is showing (Gates, 2011, p. 114-5). Classification provides an order, and then computers standardize that order (p. 115). Gates (2011) quotes Bowker and Star [Sorting Things Out p. 44] who state, "Whatever appears universal or indeed standard [is the] result of negotiations, organizational processes, and conflict" (p. 117).

IMAGE

The image database is becoming increasingly important as the amount of photos stream in from cheap cameras and larger storage banks provide more photos to be held (Gates, 2011, p. 112).

CRIME

The database is the crux of the application of photography and crime prevention (p. 102), and the "central artifact of criminal identification was not the camera, according to Sekula, but the filing cabinet" (Gates, 2011, p. 111). Archives establish order and create an idea of empirical truth (p. 111).

DATABASE SEARCHING

Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families

According to Stratford University (n.d.), “A database is defined as a place where information is collected, stored, and organized. This information can also be viewed, managed, and updated.” Searching a database involves using a search statement, or “[w]ords entered into the search box of a database or search engine when looking for information. Words relating to an information source's author, editor, title, subject heading or keyword serve as search terms. Search terms can be combined by using Boolean operators and can also be used with limits/limiters” (University of Southern California, 2019).

Note, though, that searches are not unlimited and are limited by controlled vocabularies, or “carefully constructed lists of precisely defined authorized terms” reduce the ambiguity of language by reducing language and searching down to a precise list of terms (Jagger & Burnett, 2010, p. 48).

References:

Gates, K A. (2011). Our biometric future: Facial recognition technology and the culture of surveillance. New York: New York UP.

Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families

Jaeger, P.T., & Brunett, G. (2010). Information worlds: Social context, technology, and information behavior in the age of the internet. New York: Routledge.

Stratford University. (n.d.). Database searching. Retrieved from https://www.stratford.edu/sites/default/files/Database-Searching.pdf

University of Southern California. (2019, Sept. 24). Library terminology: Glossary of library terms. Retrieved from http://libguides.usc.edu/c.php?g=235172&p=1560582#13671361