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.