steven bell writes \”Libraries are grappling with the troubling issue of the preservation of digital media. An article by Claire Tristram called \”Data Extinction\” appears in the latest issue of the MIT Technology Review. Tristram describes the problem succinctly: \”how to preserve digital things—data, software and the electronics needed to read them—as they age. Paper documents last for hundreds of years, but more and more of what matters to us is digitally produced, and we can’t guarantee that any of it will be usable 100, or 10, or even five years from now.\” The article provides a good overview of the issues, and examines a variety of technologies that may provide a solution. What role will librarians play in developing solutions? Perhaps not much according to one expert. \”People count on libraries to archive human creativity,” Abby Smith says. “It’s important for people to know, though, that libraries are at a loss about how to solve this problem.” The article is found at
TechnologyReview.com \”
Recent Comments