Digital technologies have transformed both the historical record and the historical profession. This Focus section examines how computational methods have influenced, and will influence, the history of science. The essays discuss the new types of questions and narratives that computational methods enable and the need for better data management in the history and philosophy of science (HPS) community. They showcase various methodological approaches, including textual and network analyses, and they place the computational turn in historiographical and societal context. Rather than (...) surrendering to either technophilia or technophobia, the essays articulate both the benefits and the drawbacks of computational HPS. They agree that the future of the field depends on the successful integration of technological developments, social practices, and infrastructural support and that historians of science must learn to embrace collaboration both within and beyond disciplinary boundaries. (shrink)

Text-based and multimedia documents in and for history of science are displayed in libraries and ought to be organized to make knowledge and information on history of science accessible. The traditional approach to the organization of and access to knowledge and information was expressed by classification schemes primarily influenced by philosophical traditions, and then mostly based on the literary warrant principle. Within this context, the scholarly and scientific literature was seen as representing facts about knowledge and structures of knowledge. Cataloging (...) and classification were essential to provide users access to information. Cataloging elements consist of bibliographic description, subject analysis and classification. Currently, within the digital environment, not only text-based documents, but documents of all sorts must be included, classified and organized in order to be browsed. In this paper I call the attention to some of the improvements and challenges that currently affect the relationship between catalogs, knowledge organization, classification and information retrieval. As an example I mention the catalog-interface that is being developed for the digital library of CESIMA-Brazil. (shrink)