The Preservation of Knowledge
By MICHELE VALERIE CLOONA
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4817207.pdf
Those midway through careers in preservation now find themselves
in a forest that, if not dark, is dusky.
- Origin of written records
- “Once libraries were established, the three broad areas of librarianship were acquisitions, the organization of texts (for access), and guardianship, which implies preservation of the collection.”
- “Once libraries were established, the three broad areas of librarianship were acquisitions, the organization of texts (for access), and guardianship, which implies preservation of the collection.”
- “The trend is a shift from information in permanent formats to information conveyed in formats so transitory that it can disappear at the touch of a command key.”
- Lesk (1992) reminds us that perhaps of more import than deterioration is the fact that from now on data will have to be frequently “refreshed” (reformatted) because of technological obsolesence-e.g., the equipment used to convey information will be obsolete or cease to be manufactured as vendors go bankrupt or as data are moved to more sophisticated storage media.
- “On the good side, the intervention of machinery between the actual object and nthe reader means that the users are unlikely to become emotionally attached to the particular physical media, and thus reformatting of advanced technology should not produce the objections that accompany reformatting of books.”
- “On the good side, the intervention of machinery between the actual object and nthe reader means that the users are unlikely to become emotionally attached to the particular physical media, and thus reformatting of advanced technology should not produce the objections that accompany reformatting of books.”
LIFE CYCLE OF INFORMATION
- “We can evaluate the principles in the context of the life cycle of information which consists of three stages: creation, life (or use), and disposal (reformatting, replacement, or disposal with no form of replacement). Preservation administrators are concerned with all of these stages.”
- Determine difference between an information, and a fact
- “The deterioration of an item begins during creation. For books, deterioration is caused by many things, among which are poor methods of manufacture such as adding alum-rosin sizing to paper pulp, the use of sulphuric acids to accelerate the leather tanning process, and so on.”
- “The useful life of library materials can be extended not only through proper methods of manufacture but also by improving conditions of storage and use. Controlling the environment of buildings, proper shelving, and careful handling of materials will make them last longer. Preservation administrators have made great strides in extending the use of library materials and in educating manufacturers, librarians, and users.”
- “Disposal may take place when individual items deteriorate beyond the possibility or practicality of repair.”
- “Disposal may take place when individual items deteriorate beyond the possibility or practicality of repair.”
- “How does the life cycle differ with new media? At the media creation point, the preservation community has less knowledge and expertise about the development of new formats than it does about…formats such as paper…. physical durability of new media is not the ultimate problem but rather obsolescence (Lesk, 1992, p. 2).”
- “Reformatting will also be an integral part of this stage. Four areas of concern in media conversion are: (1) fragility…., (2) rapidity of obsolence of the operating apparatus of each medium, (3) the ease of altering documents (the ability to manipulate, change, or reformat data easily), and (4)proprietary rights and preservation (who owns the information, and who will take responsibility for its preservation-an area potentially far more complex than copyright issues) (Cloonan, 1991, p. 3).”
- Paper Personal Archiving for the Everyman - An Explanation
- “The deterioration of an item begins during creation. For books, deterioration is caused by many things, among which are poor methods of manufacture such as adding alum-rosin sizing to paper pulp, the use of sulphuric acids to accelerate the leather tanning process, and so on.”
- “We can evaluate the principles in the context of the life cycle of information which consists of three stages: creation, life (or use), and disposal (reformatting, replacement, or disposal with no form of replacement). Preservation administrators are concerned with all of these stages.”
DISPOSAL OF MEDIA
- Disposal of media is a third concern.
- “Which contents or formats will we preserve? To a certain extent, these decisions will be market driven. No matter how much people resist, they will eventually give up their LP collections in favor of the predominant CDs, which they will then collect only as long as CDs are manufactured. So, ultimately, we have no control over formats and will have to focus on the content. Yet we must also realize that, in changing formats, something of the original is lost. The CD version of the Beethoven piano sonatas performed by Artur Schnabel may sound cleaner and crisper than the original LPs, but some of the original atmosphere is gone.”
- “New technologies last a shorter and shorter time than do the older ones…..Most books will not disappear within our lifetime.”
- “Yet the emergence of electronic information will result in a fundamentally different way of approaching the preservation field which has been object based (books, broadsides, maps, etc.) and time oriented (e.g., permanent/durable paper should last for at least 250 years)”
- “…the notion of saving object X for Y years may become obsolete. We will need to secure the longevity of information so that the information itself does not disappear. And i t must be done in concert with librarians, publishers, manufacturers, and anyone else involved in the handling of the information.”
- Even the act of reading this reflection on future media preservation, out of respect for preserving current preservation methods and ways of thinking, is a mind-trip. I’m reading this as a PDF on a laptop, found on the web. The WWW as an archive.
- Disposal of media is a third concern.
Transferal of Medium
- There are many instances of organizations putting in clear effort and resources to preserve physical objects as digital, by ensuring the highest quality of representation be used as compromise in “losing” the actual artifact
- Michelle Cloona calls these “Current Initiaitves or Paths out of the Forest”
- The Commission on Preservation and Access
- “…charged with creating a structure to set the conditions for a national preservation program.”
- “Perhaps the most striking example of the commission’s networking has been through the work of Hans Ru timann (1992).”
- “…reported on a variety of preservation initiatives, including the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain…45 million documents and 7,000 maps and blueprints which chronicle Spain’s 400 years of influence in the Americas.”
- “The project comprises three parts: (1) the creation of an image database, (2) a bibliographic database, and (3) implementation of an archive management system.”
- “The technical work is being carried out by IBM Spain at its Scientific Center north of Madrid, and the cataloging and scanning are being done at the archive (Rutimann & Lynn, 1992, p. 1). Rutimann (1992) has also reported on the possibilities for cooperation with preservation initiatives in China.””
- “…charged with creating a structure to set the conditions for a national preservation program.”
- Technology Assessment Advisory Committee
- “…involved in a collaborative effort between Cornell and Xerox… to test a prototype system for recording the text of deteriorating books as digital images.”
- “…involved in a collaborative effort between Cornell and Xerox… to test a prototype system for recording the text of deteriorating books as digital images.”
- Yale
- “… a study is being conducted to determine the means, costs, and benefits of converting library materials on microfilm to digital images.”
- “… a study is being conducted to determine the means, costs, and benefits of converting library materials on microfilm to digital images.”
- British Library Research and Development Department
- “…sponsoring its own research into the electronic storage and transmission of texts…”
- “…examine[d] the feasibility of acquiring data for storage in an electronic archive directly from the printer after it was typeset into electronic form…”
- “…sponsoring its own research into the electronic storage and transmission of texts…”
- “The purpose of the projects described here is to capture the information, store it centrally, and then make it available to users on demand. The emphasis is on the information itself rather than on the artifact…”
- There are many instances of organizations putting in clear effort and resources to preserve physical objects as digital, by ensuring the highest quality of representation be used as compromise in “losing” the actual artifact
But after organizing and utilizing all this new media…
- “OUT OF THE FOREST TO WHERE?”
- “After spending considerable time in preservation, where will we find ourselves? Which principles will be practiced? Will books be treated much as museum objects are today, as rare items because so few are being manufactured? Will reversibility become a dead issue because we will no longer expect books to last for hundreds of years? Will our very concept of permanence change in the next generation as consumer goods become disposable at an even faster rate than today’s average paperback book? The answer to most of these questions is likely to be “yes.” Concepts will change as the work environment changes and as the materials change.”
- “But the commitment to preserving information for future generations will certainly remain.”
- “OUT OF THE FOREST TO WHERE?”
- The Law of the Situation
- “Kurzweil(1992c) contends that if libraries see their mission broadly as gathering information and making it universally available (not confined by library buildings or adversely influenced by current perceptions of librarianship), then they will become even more important in time (p. 63).”
- “Applying the Law of the Situation to the field of preservation, we must consider the primary underpinnings of what we do.”
- “Are we ultimately concerned with the preservation of individual items or with the preservation of knowledge?”
- “Both items and knowledge must be preserved. We must continue to save as much information as possible, regardless of the format or the means by which it is stored and disseminated.”
- “Are we ultimately concerned with the preservation of individual items or with the preservation of knowledge?”
- “Kurzweil(1992c) contends that if libraries see their mission broadly as gathering information and making it universally available (not confined by library buildings or adversely influenced by current perceptions of librarianship), then they will become even more important in time (p. 63).”