The black hole of digital archives
Not only did the Digital Archive Collection at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus Hamilton Library get disabled by the flood on October 30, but now the New York Times has picked up on the lack of planning by individuals and organizations when it comes to preserving computer data and our emerging digital culture. Katie Hafner’s article starts off with these forboding words:
“The nation’s 115 million home computers are brimming over with personal treasures – millions of photographs, music of every genre, college papers, the great American novel and, of course, mountains of e-mail messages.
Yet no one has figured out how to preserve these electronic materials for the next decade, much less for the ages. Like junk e-mail, the problem of digital archiving, which seems straightforward, confounds even the experts.”
Source: “Even Digital Memories Can Fade” by Katie Hafner, New York Times, 02004-11-10 (you may need to register for free to read the story)
