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Electronic Archive



In the not so near future a modern archives will face this situation.

A significant researcher in pharmaceutical studies has passed away
(1925-2006), his/her spouse brings the researchers personal papers and
research to the university archive/manuscript repository.  Many of the
course syllabus are in HTML, most of the papers are in Microsoft Word 6,
MS 2000 and Word Perfect, Excel spread sheets, power point presentations,
access data base, Ebooks, pdf files, TIFFs, JPGs, GIFs, MOVs and other
electronic formats.  All this information is contain in several boxes that
contain 60 zip disks, 100 CD ROMs, 50 DVDs, 200 3.5 floppy disks, and 15
5.25 floppy disks.  No paper and no index.  We are not sure which files or
types of files are on which storage medium.

What will you do?  What kind of migration schedule will you set up?  What
kind of periodical check will be put in place to look for electronic
seepage?  In which format would you keep your electronic born finding aid?

Would the migration of files to newer software and storage mediums in
anyway bring this collection into question 50+ years later?  How could a
researcher in 2092 be sure that the document 11-25-01.doc written in
Microsoft Word 6 that he/she is now viewing in the most up todate word
processing software on a crystal disk storage medium has not been altered
or changed over the pass 80+ years?  What steps if any would be put into
place to guarantee the integrity of the collection?

James Beaven
Digital Librarian
Jacksonville Public Library
Jacksonville, FL


PS.

When my new email is set up, do I have to subscribe that account and
unsubscribe this account or is there a way to have it change over
automatically?

Jim

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