Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

[Antonio Carlini]

On 24/07/2019 09:45, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:
> I think you folks are forgetting that often the choice is scan and have a
> record, or just put it in for pulping.
> Storing paper is not easy and not cheap. I deeply regret binning my Wireless
> World magazines from the 1970's or 1980's but there is no way I could keep
> them
> When I offer documents on here or other platforms frequently no one is
> prepared to take them (I am in the UK).
> The same goes for some physical objects such as printers.


Indeed. I would bet that, even if you only counted those bits of 
paperwork that lasted beyond the 10 year mark (i.e. discount those that 
are destroyed early on by the end user), the vast majority end up in 
recycling because the owner sees no value in them anymore and they're 
just taking up space. Most people only scan if they cannot find what 
they want after a web search (since that's much easier than scanning a 
document) or if the scan they find is inadequate in some way. It's not 
likely that much more than a handful of any given document have been 
destroyed just to be scanned.


Scanning them preserves them (albeit imperfectly) potentially for a long 
time to come.


Antonio


-- 
Antonio Carlini
antonio at acarlini.com