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New Yorker



Sally Gibson writes:

"Put succinctly:  digitizing, or microfilming, newspapers (or any other
print
object) preserves ** part ** of the original information (i.e., the actual
words and an indication of original typography and lay-out), but not **
all (or
even most) ** of the original "information".

Bibliographers, print historians, and many others would argue that
preserving
the original format and material is absolutely essential to understanding
many
aspects of the history of printing, reading, and so on.  The type of
paper,
quality of printing, subtle (or, in the case of monochromatic
microfilming,
any) colour differences, actual size are some of the aspects of the
printed
object that cannot be adequately captured by digitization and/or
microfilming."

Good points, although these points still do not mean that we or society
has the obligation to save hundreds of millions of original newspapers.
We have an obligation to develop selection criteria, and we also have an
obligation to develop technical means to reformat these items so that as
little of the value of the original is lost as possible (this may be more
sensible than trying to save ALL originals). If we go about our work
thinking we have to save every originalthen we might as well close up shop
now -- it is not a defensible idea.  And if we are truly worrying about
this kind of approach, it seems unlikely we will ever resolve the issues
related to digital media.


Richard J. Cox
Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice:  412-624-3245
FAX:    412-648-7001
e-mail: rcox@mail.sis.pitt.edu
homepage: http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~rjc

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