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Re: Archiving information within databases



As Gunnar so accurately points out, it's extremely important that not only
is the data saved, but the software, report templates, etc. are preserved as
well to enable future users to access the information.  That of course means
the hardware also needs to be saved or progressively updated; a DB from 1995
built on a 486 machine may not run properly on a 2001 Pentium 4 running
Windows NT.

I attended a conference last year held at the JFK Library in Boston, Mass.
specifically on the issue of preservation strategies for digital materials.
The two major presenters were looking at the subject from two perspectives.
The first approach is data migration, which means continually updating your
information to the latest technology (both hard- & software), the downside
being the cost of this process.

The second approach, more complicated but more intriguing, was called
"Emulation", and the idea was to capture all the information in a standard
format (something like ASCII if I remember correctly), but with everything
including the look and "feel" of the data as originally presented, coded
into a kind of packet.  The idea (though it's a year ago and my memory is
untrustworthy) was that if you can trap everything about a program in a
standard code that can be read, anybody on any machine would be able to
reconstruct the original app & data almost exactly as it was when it was
created.

The second approach had the benefits of cost, as well as preserving the
materials as they were; personally, I think there's some value in just the
data, even if it looks different than originally, but I guess if you can
save everything...

If I can find anything about that conference, I'll try & pass it along to
the list.

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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