Standby for Reverse Paradigm Shift

[Jan Lindquist]

In case you missed it, this just in:

_The Decay Dilemma_

If you're preserving a rare book in a digital version, how do you preserve
the digital file? Ironically, the digital versions of books don't last long.
Paper documents, especially those made before the use of pulp (and the
introduction of acid), can remain in good condition for hundreds of years,
but a typical digital file on a CD-ROM might stay fully intact for only 30
years. Hardware and software can become obsolete even more quickly. Like the
millennium bug, digital storage is taking time to register as a serious
problem, but it could be far more potent: huge amounts of knowledge recorded
in the late 20th century exist only in digital form. Obviously, important
digital files must be transferred every few years to fresh disks. And to
protect against disk failure - from lightning strikes or earthquakes, for
example - backup copies are essential.
But skeptics claim that there won't be time or money to make sure all the
important data gets transferred - there's just too much of it. The best way,
they say, to preserve a digital file? Print it on acid-free paper. The
entire notion of digital preservation begins to sound like an Abbott and
Costello routine. George Farr, director of preservation and access at the
National Endowment for the Humanities, acknowledges the problem and
emphasizes that the current digitalization projects are really for access,
not preservation. He advocates a hybrid approach, combining digital versions
(for easy access), microfilm (for preservation - it's believed to last for
hundreds of years), and the original documents.

Robert Shuster, "Forward to the Past", Adobe Magazine, Summer, 1999.


Jan Lindquist < mailto:jal2001 at bigfoot.com >