As a person involved in both libraries and music, I have a great many high-stakes encounters with the digital world.\u00a0 Overall, I think the tenor of the discussion about\u00a0this world can be too feverish.\u00a0 Digital media are neither the sky falling nor the second coming.\u00a0 They are media that work well for access; that work problematically for preservation; and that uproot economies of the arts.<\/p>\n
Regarding digital media and preservation, I often wonder what will happen in archives as more and more information is born digital, and as the pace of\u00a0its creation continues to quicken.\u00a0 How\u00a0can we archives staff\u00a0collect all the digital records of a government, or of an artist, or of a company, and reliably shepherd them through myriad instances of hardware and software obsolescence?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an answer I\u2019ve been trying on for size lately: we can\u2019t.\u00a0 At least, we can\u2019t in the completist way to which we\u2019re accustomed.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say we won\u2019t try.\u00a0 But given finite and decreasing resources, especially in the public sector, humanities, and the arts, I can\u2019t imagine how archives can reasonably keep up with seemingly exponential growth in digital data and ensure its availability in 50 or 100 years.\u00a0 Digital data are far less stable than paper, and in our shift from paper to digital, we\u2019ve traded relative permanence for ease of access.\u00a0 Simplified, in this particular Faustian bargain, we can have everything right now, but we can\u2019t keep it.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, this idea actually gives me some relief from digital anxiety, like a cease-fire in the giant Tetris game of incoming data for archives.\u00a0 There\u2019s something in it that implies a near-Buddhist acceptance of change and loss.\u00a0 But if we\u2019re to accept the idea of a\u00a0patchier\u00a0cultural record, then selection becomes all the more significant.\u00a0 Collections managers will have to make very smart decisions about what to keep.\u00a0 Records retention policies will have to reflect this reality.\u00a0 And is it OK for future researchers to guide our collective cultural understanding with a more selective view of the past?<\/p>\n
I could say much more about this and related topics, but I\u2019ll stop here in hopes of encouraging the commentary of others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a person involved in both libraries and music, I have a great many high-stakes encounters with the digital world.\u00a0 Overall, I think the tenor of the discussion about\u00a0this world can be too feverish.\u00a0 Digital media are neither the sky … Continue reading