Data as information

摘要

Shannon's well-known measure of entropy provides a means of measuring the amount of information in a message—regardless of message content. For the particular case of data statements, Ranganathan's faceted classification scheme provides a means of systematically determining the number of meaningful data that can be constructed from a particular set of domains. The two sets of principles, combined, thus provide a structure for deriving meaning from data. This paper discusses such a structure.