Bill,
I want permission to use that nursery rhyme for future digital preservation
sessions. What's your ASCAP rate? :)
Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, LIT, ICP, edp, ermm, ecms
IMERGE Consulting
[log in to unmask]
(303) 574-1455 office
(303) 484-4142 fax
YIM: jessewilkins8511
New courses on advanced electronic records and email management come to
Richmond, VA Nov 6-8. For details or to register visit
http://www.imergeconsult.com/aerm.htm.
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Roach, Bill J.
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Question
Deborah,
There are a number of issues that will have to be dealt with for electronic
records to be accessible for 50 years. All of the parts and pieces remind
me of an old nursery rhyme.
Included in the mix is the software needed to interpret the bits and bytes
that are the building blocks of the records. Most software programs have
only a limited ability to use older versions.
Additionally, there will be very few of today's software solutions available
even 10-15 years from now. In the life of software, 50 years is an
eternity.
The second item is the hardware. Will we have the necessary hardware to run
the software needed to access the records. While hardware doesn't change as
fast as software, it does change. The 8" floppies used by IBM were replaced
by the 5 1/4 models, they 3 1/2" then CD, CDR, CDRW, and a Baskins-Robbins
assortment of DVD formats.
And we shouldn't forget about the media. While media is getting better,
retaining readable media for 50 years is a crapshoot. While the media
itself may hold up very well in controlled conditions, much of what is being
retained is being stored haphazardly and subject to the rigors of heat,
cold, humidity and a variety of nasty volatile chemicals. And then there
are the bugs, tropical ones that have found that the perfect midnight snack
is the reflective layer on your favorite CD.
And finally, there is the formats. We have data today that is in pristine
condition. Unfortunately for the folks that need to access it, the company
that created the software is no more and the hardware it ran on is no longer
available. To make it worse, the company was successful in convincing the
solution purchaser that the best approach was to leave the data in its
native, highly proprietary format.
The bottom line is the nursery rhyme: This is the code, that runs on the
box, the uses the disk, to access the files, so they can be viewed, after 50
years, by folks in the house that Jack built.
If any one of the pieces doesn't work, Jack's 50th celebration will be a
bust. And remember, 50 years in an archives is but a very thin slice of
history. How will the records be accessed a thousand years from now?
Bill R
Bill Roach, CRM
Enterprise EDMS Coordinator
State of North Dakota
ITD/Records Management
701-328-3589
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
|
