T3D Re: TECH-3D digest 531

[bob Wier <wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>For now, many analogue mediums so vastly outperform digital ones in terms
>of archival characteristics, as well as "softer" presentation
>characteristics, that I don't see any significant advantage in digitizing
>for preservation purposes, and quite a few downsides in many instances.
>

The Western History Collection of the Denver Public Library has/had
a project (maybe someone here can update) where they wanted ot digitize
all of their images so that they could be a) viewed via the internet and
more importantly b) viewed by researchers in-house so that the actual
photos would not have to be handled (at least unless there was clearly
a subject of interest as initially determined by looking at the
digitized version). 

Also, because of the advance of technology the reformat/copy issue
gets complex. Yup, you can duplicate an image without the analog
quality loss of copy by generation, but on the other hand, with regular
original images, you can stick 'em into the files and leave them
there essentially forever (although this doesn't always work as
some media spontaneously self-destruct, such as nitrate based
movie film, acid content paper, etc.). The big problem with digital
is that it requires a continual committment (and thus money) to keep
the stuff retrievable. If there is no budget for this (and many
funding entities have yet to come to this realization, in my experience)
then there will be an on-going decision process about what to save
versus what to let slip away. Unfortunately unless you buy your
computer with a crystal ball option, it's not always easy to tell
what will be important in 50 years or so. For example, just general
street scenes taken today showing people on the street, cars, buildings,
etc seem incredibly pedestrian (slight pun) and not worth taking. But
in 50 years they are REAL interesting (ie - I find street scenes from
1950 pretty interesting, not to menion 1870, etc). 

The ongoing maintanence problem is so severe that even in our
little college library, they are EXTREMELY reluctant to start
magazine subscriptions since they feel it will be an ongoing 
expense forever - some libraries won't even accept gift 
subscriptions due to this (at least if they are expected to 
compile them into archives). It's a real problem in my field
(computer science) since by definition when something gets
printed in a book it's 90% certain to be obsolete. But I cannot
get any significant committment to providing periodicals...

THANKS

--Bob Wier

       mailto:wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
       12:54 PM Saturday, August 21, 1999
     Unix/Internet Systems Administrator
    Rocky Mountain College, Billings, MT
      (currently in Ouray, Colorado)



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End of TECH-3D Digest 532
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