Archiving Machines - Outside of a Dog

English language

Published Nov. 11, 2025 by The MIT Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-262-55324-7

Archiving Machines advances our understanding of memory, information, and data by charting the struggle between the computing technologies that archive data and the cultures of information that have led to platforms that assert control over its use. Amelia Acker examines the origins of data archives and the computing processes of storage, exchange, and transmission. Each chapter introduces data archiving processes that relate to the evolution of data sovereignty we experience today: from magnetic tape and timesharing computer models from the 1950s, to the establishment of data banks and the rise of database processing and managed data silos in the 1970s, to file structures and virtual containers in cloud-based information services over the past 40 years.

3 editions

Ben Waber reviewed Archiving Machines by Amelia Acker

An Engaging Tour Through Digital Data History

4 stars

This is an engaging examination of the history of digital data storage, focusing on technologies and initiatives centering that paradigm. This is most clear when Acker is analyzing more centralized systems, particularly early US government attempts to create vast databases that posed varying privacy risks. As we get closer to the modern day the analytical throughline becomes a bit muddied, although what does remain clear is how data is stored and controlled is deeply sociotechnical. Highly recommend

Ben Waber

rated it

August 3

Subjects

data archiving
information retrieval
history of archives

Lists

AcademicRunPlaylist