Re: [ARSCLIST] Long-term/preservation audio

["Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:57 PM 6/27/2003 -0400,
Mike
Csontos  Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx
wrote:

> I
> know of no way to put this material into any sort of database where it
> will be maintained by IT professionals. Is anyone establishing an
> "audio cemetery" where digital archives will receive
> "perpetual care"?

The only thing I don't like about your cemetery analogy is that it
implies death. Once the asset is in, what I prefer to call
"permanent digital archive" under "perpetual care" of
an IT department it will be ready for easy access, rights
willing.

What we need is a societal will to preserve this and fund it. It is NOT a
technological problem any more. It is a societal/political/organizational
problem (choose the word that best fits your image).

I like audio CD-Rs DESPITE Jerry's warnings as they are likely to last
longer without intervention than your flawed 25-year-old tapes, players
will be plentiful for the foreseeable future, and they can be
"ripped" to data files at faster than real time.

I don't think audio CD-Rs are the be-all and end-all, but they are the
most likely to be easily playable in 50 or 100 years.

The fact that our early media is so robust is a tribute to the engineers
who developed it and also an artifact of the early tools and
requirements. Obviously, people were focusing on other parameters when
your tapes-in-need-of-baking were developed and manufactured.

If the anecdotal story I've heard is true, 3M used their tried-and-true
red barn paint as the basis for the early magnetic tapes.

Cheers,

Richard