Big data gets big help: Law and policy literacies for text data mining

Abstract

A wealth of digital texts and the proliferation of automated research methodologies enable researchers to analyze large sets of data at a speed that would be impossible to achieve through manual review. When researchers use these automated techniques and methods for identifying, extracting, and analyzing patterns, trends, and relationships across large volumes of un- or thinly structured digital content, they are applying a methodology called text data mining or TDM. TDM is also referred to, with slightly different emphases, as “computational text analysis” or “content mining.”

Licensing Challenges Associated With Text and Data Mining: How Do We Get Our Patrons What They Need?

“…More recently, Courtney et al (2020) provided a brief but very valuable overview of copyright law as it relates to TDM work, particularly with regard to fair use. The act of preparing textual data for TDM analysis-that is, the scanning and digitizing of the text-was found to be transformative by a district court and was affirmed by the US 2nd Circuit Court.…”