Daniel,
Allow me a little more clarification: JPEG is "something" of an open standard. The problem is that JPEG is a loosy compression method, not REALLY file format. So the problem lies in WHAT you do to a file that has had the JPEG compression performed upon it...and further processing a JPEG file is risky business.
Having said that, the JPEG compression scheme is pretty well documented (how "open" a standard you want depends on how you define "open."), so changes can be tracked. I'll repeat myself, if you receive a collection of JPEGs, then that's what you've got. You "freeze" their state, understanding that any future manipulation, migration, duplication, or copying will never improve or enhance them beyond that initial state.
Imagine, instead of JPEGs, you receive photocopies as a "priceless" collection of papers. You "could" improve on the "display" of the information by scanning them, running contrast control enhancements, etc., but the originals STILL will be crappy photocopies that you hope like crazy were done on high rag content paper. In the words of a certain football coach noted in certain parts of the country, "Ya gotta dance with who brung ya."
Bottom line: the original you receive will still be your original, whatever it is. Just take the appropriate steps to preserve it. (In the case of JPEGs, I would try to make a "preservation" copy of the files to be kept elsewhere, on some kind of recordable media, like CD, but recognizing the issues that surround the use of JPEGs).
Hope this helps?
Dennis
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From: Daniel Noonan
Reply To: daniel.noonan@sos.state.nj.us
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 09:51
To: Moser Dennis
Cc: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Archiving Digital Images
Please let me clarify. What would your organizations do if someone was donating their "papers" that included non-TIFF formatted images?
Thanks -- dan
{{HUGE SNIP HERE TO RETAIN ORIGINAL QUESTION}}
What if they were
not JPG but in some proprietary format - do we try to convert them to
an open format? I'm interested in what people may actually being doing,
what standards or procedures they may have developed for their archives,
and/or what your take on this issue is.
Thank you -- Dan Noonan