Allow me, in turn,
to respond to the various responses. As Dennis noted, we're moving
inexorably to the point where all of us will be required to master at least a
certain amount of technology, those of us at least who haven't already.
The truth is for
most of us, the materials ON the hard drive are of interest rather than the
drives themselves. Assuming author John Smith gives his hard drives to the
Smithtown Archives, users will want to read Smith's writings, and don't much
care how they got there. However...
Assuming one was the
archivist at the Smithtown Computer Center, you'd be interested in the drive
itself, I imagine. Like Sharon suggested, documents can be Lean Cuisine
packages (no pork for me, please), but I presume they hold no historical value
unless one is archiving advertising or packaging history. Likwise the hard
drive itself only holds value if you are documenting the history of computer
equipment.
Mind you, as we've
talked about, there are occasions when the outside is important, i.e. bindings
& clasps on medieval books, but I think given the nature of hard drives, in
most cases I'd see little value for the average archives.
DS
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