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Greetings,
I was unable to attend last year's ARSC meeting in
Madison but obtained a tape copy of the session on using CD-R as a preservation
medium and very much appreciated the insights offered by the
panelists.
I am contemplating applying to NEH for a small
Preservation Assistance Grant and I wanted to query the list to see if anyone
knows where things stand with regard to using CD-R in NEH funded archives
projects.
Having overseen two relatively major NEH funded
audio preservation projects in the past, I am aware of both the expense of
undertaking a project using ten inch reels of quarter inch analog tape and of
the steady shrinking of industrial support for analog tape.
I have been under the impression that NEH has
generally looked more favorably on projects that use analog tape for
preservation, but I wonder if that is still the case? It seems to be
harder and harder to justify the investment. There have been numerous
concerns about using digital media for long range preservation, but I wonder if
some of those concerns also apply to analog tape, especially the concern that
both media and equipment may soon become very difficult to obtain and
prohibitively more expensive as the market shrinks. Since this seems to be
what's happening, can archives with audio collections continue to submit
proposals based on analog transfers?
Guidelines I just downloaded for NEH Preservation
Assistance Grants indicate that the grants will not support "digitization of
collections or the purchase of computers, scanners, or digital cameras." I
assume that burning CD-Rs is viewed as digitization and would not be
supported. I can call NEH to inquire further but I wonder if any list
members are currently pursuing preservation projects (NEH funded or not) using
CD-R as the medium of choice? Have you then abandoned using analog tape
for new projects?
Until I downloaded these guidelines I had assumed
that if one adhered to best practices recommended by the nation's experts (many
of whom belong to ARSC) and observed certain things like using appropriate,
tested media, that moving into the digital domain for preservation was
inevitable and acceptable.
Thanks in advance for any insights and
comments.
Steve Green
Western Folklife Center
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