Mr. Chad Moore, Lead Narrative Designer on WildStar revealed some of the aspects of Lore Collections while giving interview to Serge during Arkship EU 2013.
WildStar Datacubes
Datacubes represent audio logs and research notes left behind by the Elden. These notes explain what they were doing in particular areas, as well as telling a larger story about what exactly what they were doing on Nexus. Eventually it will give insight into what happened to the Elden and why they disappeared 1 000 years ago. You will stumble upon these Datacubes in the open world, and finding them will give you a lore reward.
WildStar Journals
There are also Journals that represent books, scrolls, datapads, basically any sort of writing that is left behind by various groups in WildStar. These Journals will be placed in towns, camps, sometimes even in dungeons. Their purpose is to enhance the stories that you experience at the time. The purpose of the Journals are to give people, that want to know about the game’s lore, a chance to learn more about the world of Nexus.
Keep in mind that if you want to learn as much about the game’s lore as possible you will want to take the Scientist path. All the paths will run across these Datacubes and Journals during their travels, but the Scientist path, with its focus around lore collecting, will be running into far more than any of the other paths.
For more information on the lore collectibles check out the full interview here.