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Re: archiving e-mail



The other downsides to all of this are a) the rapid shift of technology, and
b) the rapid rise & fall of many a service provider.

We've had numerous conversations on the list about changes in technology, so
I won't beat the dead horse too much, but the basic question that has to be
asked about any long-term (and I echo the other respondents - 2 years ain't
a long time by my archival standards) is whether or not we'll have the
technology to read those tapes in 5-10 years.  I myself posted a question to
the list a short time ago asking who had 1) a 5.25' floppy drive, and 2)
Displaywrite, a long-dead software package; will any of us have hard &
software to deal with those "permanent" backup tapes?  Most of us can't
afford to keep the old equipment running, or pay to have stuff converted
everytime the damned formats change.  Archiving electronic formats raises a
lot more questions than "do we have enough space".

As to my point B, tech companies in particular come & go at the drop of a
hat - depending on them for historical materials is risky at best - they may
not be in business for terribly long, and then the stuff is toast.  (The
recent hits to Yahoo's stock price show nobody's invulnerable, by the way).

So the short answer to your friend's question is "it's just not that easy"

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

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