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Re: Let them eat cake



Don't forget the metadata that has to accompany each digital file!  The
scans are useless if the web-searching community can't find them.  Applying
metadata takes time and expertise -- this is why we make the big bucks as
librarians and archivists.

Laura Smith
UConn Libraries

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Sokolow [mailto:DSokolow@NSHS.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 1:31 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Let them eat cake


True, but your begged question has a decent answer, or set of answers:

1) who's paying for it?  2) who's going to take the time to insure the scans
are accurate? 3) Is there any cost benefit to all the scanning? 4) who's
going to insure all the files are maintained from one computer generation to
the next? 5)copyright, copyright, copyright

That ol' "digitize the works" proposal comes at us all the time, and whoever
suggests it clearly has no concept of what that actually means.  Generally
there's not enough use (of each particular item, anyway) to merit the
conversion costs.   (But we've been over this particular can of worms enough
in the past, so...)

DS

PS Welcome to the de-lurked community

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu



Ultimately, I think a blanket 'wait three weeks' message only begs the
question, "why not hire a temp to scan everything into the computer and let
researchers find it themselves?" I have no problem responding to undeveloped
questions with, "you really need to visit us in person to uncover that
information." I'd prefer to be a crazed and overworked information
professional than an unemployed smarty-pants  ;)

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