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Re: hard disks - short



Title: RE: hard disks - short

 Hmmmm.  I meant to respond to this earlier...Ed and Sharon's remarks prompt me with the need to agree.

Continuing this thread of logic suggests to me that one might even go so far as to suggest that the hard drive is, in fact, a repository. And if you can accept that a computer file system has a logical system giving an arrangement to its' contents, then it even has an "original order" that should probably be respected. Of course, this would mean that we consider the "hard drive" in the context of archives being a legal repository of record of last resort. Imagine a Special Collections or Historical Society receiving a hard drive full of drafts and personal correspondenc of an individual, as opposed to say, the hard drives that Ollie North tried so hard to destroy. Are the Special Collections librarians and Historical Society archivists up to this task?

We are going to be increasingly required to reconsider our meanings of concepts as the means of production of intellectual content, to say nothing of the means of doing 'bidness', continue to shift to the purely digital...

Dennis "Keyboarding ('cuz it ain't a typewriter) My Content on High-Bandwidth Hardware, with that fountain pen and paper next to me" Moser


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Southern
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Sent: 5/17/02 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: hard disks - short

5/17/02
 
    Mr. Popovici's question is by no means stupid. This remains one of
the great sources of debate in the records universe. For my $.02 worth,
Sharon is headed in the right direction on this question. T. Hine, The
Total Package, is very good on the interweaving of container and
information, especially in the product advertising world. See also B.
Bergeron in Dark Ages II: When the Digital Data Die: "Data cannot be
separated conceptually from the form and means of communication".
 
Ed Southern

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Edwin Southern, Ph.D  (ed.southern@ncmail.net)
Head, State and University Records Unit
Department of Cultural Resources     
Division of Historical Resources
Archives and Records Section      
Government Records Branch                          
4615 Mail Service Center                                   
Raleigh, NC 27699-4615

Phone 919/733-3540
Fax 919/715-3627

Opinions in this message might not
represent the policies of this agency.

E-Mail to and from me, in connection
with the transaction of public business,
is subject to the North Carolina Public
Records Law and may be disclosed to third
parties.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On
Behalf Of Butcher Sharon L Contr AEDC/ACS
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 4:43 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: hard disks - short


I wonder what the legal beagles say about this. I recently gave a paper
where I gave examples of documents...they include boxes our food comes
in (e.g., Lean Cuisine, Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage, Sweet-N-Low
packets, dog tags, pencils with printing, clay tablets, telephone bills,
match covers, political nail files with a candidate's name and slogan,
Fido's heart worm medication box, a cake mix box with the symbol of the
measuring cup/egg/oil, etc.  They all carry symbols conveying
information, be it cunieform, English, transportation symbols, a logo,
whatever. Grecian urns have symbols conveying information.  A
receipt.....from Sprawl Mart is another document.
 

Sharon Lee Butcher
Reference Librarian
AEDC Technical Library