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Re: Archiving information within databases



To return to Christian's original question, what is "record" in a database
is the data itself. Without the data, there can be no reports, views, etc.
If one can keep the underlying data in a non-proprietary format, then one
can import the data into the latest software program out there if need be.
It is important for us as archivists to document why the data was collected,
how it was used by the original organization who collected it, and how it
was accessed. This does not mean that we necessarily have to keep the
hardware and software; it means we need to keep an accounting of the who,
what, why, when, where, and how so that future researchers can understand
those aspects. It is essential to preserve the data, for it is the
foundation upon which the database was built.


My opinion only.
Cheryl Stadel-Bevans
<clsb@iname.com>

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