[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: digitization projects grant guidelines



Granting agencies may indeed be allowing digitization in lieu of
microfilming, but this, in my opinion, is a terrible mistake.  Micro-
film has a proven longevity of nearly a century (and longer, per
laboratory tests), especially if care is taken to provide for multiple
copies (master negative, duplicating negative, positives).

The key problem to digitization is that the "copy" is an electronic
digital file.  In order to read that file for printing (at any point in
the future), you need a compatible operating system, computer,
software, and printer.    And given the rapid change of all of these
components, I believe (with dismay) that any digital image created
will probably be unusable/unreadable at a "very soon" point in
the future.   The entire purpose of preservation is to insure that
information is permanently captured for the future.    Digitization,
to me, does not do that -- it DOES permit access and manipulation
of data (such as sharing files, transmission, etc.)....but it is not
preservation.

Digital technologists will point out that, in their view, it is preservation
so long as you migrate the data from format to format.  In short, if
you began with an Edison wax cylinder recording, you would then
have copied that onto a 78 phonograph record, then only a 33 1/3
vinyl disc, then onto an 8-track recording, then onto a reel-to-reel
tape, then onto an audiocasette, then onto a digital tape, etc.
This sounds quite reasonable, even with the loss of quality with
each generation.

But my argument is that none of us -- professionally and personally
-- will ever have each generation of equipment and the time, staff,
and money to insure that everything we had in the previous generation
is moved to the new generation.   That is, I believe, the danger of
the myth of digitization as preservation.

As I write these, I am reminded that every office of my University now
has digital cameras -- public relations, athletics, art department, etc.
and they are busy taking photographs of events, buildings, people,
and often posting these to their websites.   The individual digital files
reside on dozens (if not hundreds) of different computers, servers,
floppy disks, zap disks, etc., often in the possession of different
staff.    And yes, I despair, as an archivist of capturing the visual
university record so that fifty years from now when someone wants
to do a website, book, newsletter, television production of the
"good old days" in 2001 ... where will these visual records be?

I apologize if I sound discouraged.   Digital cameras are "cool" and
I like being able to see what has been "photographed."  But a decade
from now when the family gathers at Thanksgiving and wants to see
the older family pictures, they may be totally lost on a defunct electronic
medium.

If you are going for preservation, continue to microfilm AND digitize.
(photograph and digital photograph) for the optimum situation of
preservation of information.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
     In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                   *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
    http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>