On 28 November 2023, the lecture What and how can you learn from great bibliographies? was given by Prof. Adam Pawłowski from the University of Wrocław. The co-author of the lecture was Dr. Tomasz Walkowiak of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
The lecture was attended by Dr Barbara Budyńska, President of the Polish Librarians’ Association, who welcomed participants representing various types of libraries.
The lecture was devoted to advanced methods of data analysis, such as automatic natural language processing (NLP) and text mining. The speaker discussed an innovative tool called a 'bibliomap', which enables toponyms contained in bibliographic data to be projected into geophysical space. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to learn about the various quantitative-qualitative relationships hidden in the databases being discussed. The lecturer also presented interesting aspects such as the dynamics of gender share among book authors and the dynamics of publishing in Polish cities. The last important point was the adoption of so-called late modernity and contemporaneity (1800-2021) as the research period, which allowed for an in-depth understanding of changes in writing and intellectual activity during this time.
Prof. Adam Pawłowski's lecture was a valuable source of knowledge on modern methods of analysing bibliographic data and their significance for understanding the development of culture and intellectual activity in Poland and Germany.