Gordy Hoke said "If a record for a 30-year lease was stored on a CD, the renewal field's date would be within the life expectancy of the CD"

With all due respect, Gordy, I think it would be EXTREMELY FOOLISH to expect a 30-year life expectancy for any CD.

Reasons:
- Manufacturing characteristics of the "CD" (CD-ROM vs. CD-/+R vs. CD-/+RW).
- Encoding of CD (CD-ROM vs. CD-R vs. CD+R vs. CD-RW vs. CD+RW).
- Environmental conditions under which the "CD" (whatever type and encoding) has been stored.
- Availability of appropriate "CD drive", both hardware and software. My staff recently retrieved from off-site (non climate-controlled) storage a box containing 8" floppy disks. Best guess is Vydec or Wang ...
- Availability of appropriate operating system and platform. "Signals" (a US Library of Congress publication on digital preservation) recently featured an article on the practical impossibility of retrieving info from a "CD" from the early 1990s.

That said, I completely agree with the notion of including a "life of media" field (and tickler) in any inventory and retention schedule (and, consequently, in any records management system). Thanks for suggesting it, Gordy.

Fred

---------------------------------
Frederic J. Grevin
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212-312-3903
Vice-President, Records Management
New York City Economic Development Corporation

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