Hello, Mike,
Thanks for the excellent post. There are two points that I'd like to add.
(1) I was quite surprised that you did not mention the IU FACET Tool
as a means of helping get ones arms around this collection by
breaking it down into sub-collections and assessing the risk
associated with each sub-collection.
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/facet/index.shtml
(2) With a collection of 100,000 hours, I wonder how one might go
about prioritizing the content. FACET permits one to prioritize based
on risk, but there is a content importance factor that is also
available in the system. I wonder if, in 100,000 hours if there are
any duplications of ceremonies or stories. While I am a firm believer
that digitizing and preserving MORE content will be looked upon
favourably by our descendants (as opposed to cherry picking a few
items), I also think the burden we impose on our descendants by
digitizing and preserving everything just because we can is also a
big issue. I don't know the answer, but I'm becoming aware of the
question and its answer should perhaps inform these huge expenditures.
Cheers,
Richard
At 10:55 AM 2009-10-29, Casey, Michael T wrote:
>Maria,
>
>The archive in question, AIATSIS, is in the same boat as many
>hundreds of others around the world: holders of unique historical
>and cultural content carried on media formats that are actively
>degrading and already obsolete. Many archivists believe that we have
>a 15-20 year window in which to digitally preserve this content
>before it becomes either impossible or prohibitively expensive due
>to the combination of degradation and obsolescence. There is less
>time for some formats. Possibly more for other formats, such as
>certain types of magnetic tape, if playback machines and spare parts
>are stockpiled now.
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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