Hollerith is not a term. It was the name of the guy who invented the punch cards, Herman Hollerith. Back in the 19th century he worked for MIT and came up with the idea of putting information on punched cards which were converted into eletronic impulses and could be tabulated. He was awarded a patent for this idea in the 1880s. It is amazing to me that these "punched cards" were still used by business and government until the late 1970s!