Repurposing Legacy Data: Innovative Case Studies takes a look at how data scientists have re-purposed legacy data, whether their own, or legacy data that has been donated to the public domain.

Most of the data stored worldwide is legacy data—data created some time in the past, for a particular purpose, and left in obsolete formats. As with keepsakes in an attic, we retain this information thinking it may have value in the future, though we have no current use for it.

The case studies in this book, from such diverse fields as cosmology, quantum physics, high-energy physics, microbiology, psychiatry, medicine, and hospital administration, all serve to demonstrate how innovative people draw value from legacy data. By following the case examples, readers will learn how legacy data is restored, merged, and analyzed for purposes that were never imagined by the original data creators.