Preservation of clippings

This is in reply to Gary Saretzky's comments on transcription of
newspaper articles to microfilm and other forms of information
storage.  I have been advising archives to only preserve originals
in this manner and not to replace them.  I recall Robert Organ's
talk on incompatible computer systems in the early 1980s where he
gave examples of data put onto computer tape or cards and then the
originals destroyed by archivists only to find a decade or so later
that new systems had replaced old computer hardware and no
translation had been done.  The result being that the original data
was now lost.  This is going on today, as even people with data on
Wordstar programs are finding it impossible to find translation
software.  I would beware of advising for any original data
destruction until it is determined that storage is entirely
impossible.

Niccolo Caldararo
Director and Chief Conservator
Conservation Art Service

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:50
                 Distributed: Tuesday, December 8, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-50-017
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