9 Oct
2005
9 Oct
'05
4:50 a.m.
This whole discussion about the volatility of storage
reminds
me of a conversation I had recently with a friend who's a
professional archivist. I asked her what medium was used for
archival storage--CD-ROM, DVD, etc.?
Paper. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Sorry to steal your thread, but...
I have been talking with my state's historical archiving group. They are
very interested in some form of digital media for archiving, and are now
aware that paper (and microform) still offer the best solutions. They
are back to the issue of digital archiving for a new reason, space. They
would like to have some form of high density storage (higher than paper)
and they can accommodate a shorter shelf life if they can get it into
the 10+ year range. They are exploring a digitization program with
long-term remote storage of the original material in a storage facility
(off-line storage if you will), and a technology refresh program to
re-format the digital storage as mediums change (like the recent move
from CD-ROM to DVD-ROM).
Does anyone know if there are optical formats that can reliably deliver
10 year shelf-life? How does one achieve it (different types of cd-r
chemistry, using cd-rom, etc)?