Dear Fellow Archivists,
I have spent the last 7 years working with a private institutional audio
collection. The collection of 7000 tapes is primarily cassette with some
very early 1/4". Up until now we have been reformatting to both CD-R and
full track 1/4" (7 1/2 ips). I have been uncomfortable with the prospect
of putting all our historical eggs in one basket especially when that
basket (CD-R) hasn't got much of a longterm track record. However, with
the recent closing of the Quantegy plant, and the future availability of
1/4" tape in question, I am re-evaluating my stance. I suspect there have
been many discussions on this list about format choice for preservation
projects such as ours but I am a recent subscriber and have not had the
good fortune to gleen the views already expressed.
So, my question is really a request for a quick survey. How many of you
would vote in favor of using CD-R alone, for a collection like ours, with
multiple copies being generated for long term preservation and access
purposes? (Considering that we would like not to have to do another round
of reformatting for at least 30 years.)
Thank you in advance for your responses and any other comments you care to
make.
Sincerely yours,
Kevin Irelan
SYDA Foundation
Audio Archive