Structured Glossary of Technical Terms

Notes

1. See Section 3.1 for a discussion of the use of the term "media conversion" to replace the use of the term "reformatting." We also follow the distinction that while media conversion is not a conserving technology, it is a preserving technology.

2. This analogy was pointed out by Douglas van Houweling.

3. A glimpse of possible implications has already been seen in the tendency of many libraries to charge patrons for searches of electronic databases.

4. Harvey Wheeler: "The Virtual Library: The Electronic Library Developing Within The Traditional Library". Doheny Documents, University of Southern California University Library, 1987.

5. Some fields, particularly those propelled by the impetus of commercial endeavors such as medicine, law, and finance, are beyond the prototype stage and are into full production.

6. Conservation may allow for only partial preservation of the original document. The bindings, for example, may be replaced while the body of the document is conserved.

7. Originally, the term "vellum" was restricted to calfskin. The distinction between parchment and vellum has eroded over the years.

8. The term digital technologies is also used for brevity throughout this Glossary.

9. The non-technical reader may wish to compare the odometer of a car (a digital device which quantizes in precise 1/10th of a mile increments) with the speedometer (an analog device which displays speed continuously but which can only be interpreted approximately).

10. However, digital(ly-encoded) video is no becoming part of the panoply of technologies, where analog video signals are converted to digital signals for purposes of storage, transmission and playback through a computer (3.6.2.6) or multi-media (3.6.2.7) workstation.

11. This assertion, however, may not be true in the future. For example, music is now recorded in digital electronic form, such as DDD Compact Discs.

12. Although an increasing number of books are published on other media (see the Introduction to this Section). This remark also applies to 1.2.3, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.2.6, and 1.2.8. Video magazines and journals, for example, are beginning to appear. A few books are being published only in digital form for playback on a computer workstation.

13. In keeping with the spirit noted in the Foreword that this Glossary is intended to be comprehensive but not exhaustive.

14. The Term "object" is used here in a sense that is more familiar to computer professionals than to librarians.

15. Strictly speaking, monotone documents should be termed "monohue".

16. Copyright law as it applies to the subject of preservation will be the subject of a forthcoming paper by the Commission on Preservation and Access.

17. For a fuller explanation of copyright laws, see "Copyright Basics", Circular No. 1, published by the Copyright Office of the U S. Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20559.

18. See also "Selection for Preservation of Research Library Materials," a Report of the Commission on Preservation and Access, August 1989.

19. The Research Libraries Group, Inc., is a not-for-profit corporation owned and operated by its governing members: major universities and research institutions in the United States.

20. It is tempting to use the term "remediate" for "media conversion," a temptation that has been resisted in the formulation of this Glossary.

21. For a discussion of the importance of conservation see "On the Preservation of Books and Documents in Original Form," by Barclay Ogden, Report of the Commission on Preservation and Access, October, 1989.

22. For more information see "Technical Considerations in Choosing Mass Deacidification Processes," by Peter G. Sparks published by the Commission on Preservation and Access, May 1 990.

23. The original, or preservation, negative should not be viewed with a microform reader (3.6.2.2) because of potential damage to the negative.

24. Newer processes becoming available appear to remove the obstacle of high-contrast recording.

25. Removable disks, such as floppy disks, are also used for archival storage. However, magnetic tapes are usually cheaper when large volumes of data are to be archived.

26. See Footnote 13.

27. See Footnote 13.

28. See Footnote 13.

29. See Footnote 1 3.

30. See Footnote 13.

31. The Technical Assessment Advisory Committee of the Commission for Preservation and Access is preparing a report on the implications of data networks.