[ARSCLIST] Fwd: Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx> wrote:    *** We simply do not have sufficient trust that the future 
will preserve what we have been working with. At least I do not.  
  snip
  ***There will be family trust owned repositories that will survive, much like big country estates survive, because there are craftsmen and gardeners, such families will be sufficiently focussed and can afford it. For the rest of us there will only be what remains after governments have given up maintaining our history. 
  snip
  ***I really think we have lost our chance to preserve history by not requesting - louder and louder - that we are given systems that will be able to maintain their usefulness unattended (!) for a minimum of 100 years. That would have permitted investment - so beloved by funders - rather than mere expenditure.
   
  George,
   
  Indeed, investment rather than expenditure.
   
  It seems to me that little of our cultural heritage has survived due to a consciously considered, rigorously applied preservation plan. It has survived due to happenstance, the quirks of natural history, and the collecting habits of a relatively small percentage of our population. Institutions are rarely the initial primary collecting agencies as they usually acquire the collections built and developed by individuals, corporations and other entities. 
   
  I am reminded of the Audio Preservation: a planning study, of which George was a contributor. Even back then, some 20 years ago, we all lamented the lack of a single long term storage medium and stated the need for same.  While much has changed, the concerns outlined in that study are as valid as they were when it was written.
   
  Sadly, it seems that preserving history does not carry as great a value in the eyes of society as does making history.
   
  Karl