From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Brandon Burke asked:

> Anyone else think it's ironic (sad even?) that a thread originally about
> preservation and long-term 
> housing solutions has turned into a discussion of milk crate technologies..

----- I for one don't. Because the query was about an instant problem, not 
about preservation and long-term housing at all. People reacted on their gut 
feeling and saw "long term", so their posts were just as misguided. And 
reacting by going into fibre-glass reinforced milk crates is just as 
relevant. 

I think that we may have information overload, but from free association 
something good may still come. People used plywood in the old days (see the 
original post), and the fortuitous fact that certain milk crates are actually 
also very good for housing records with stiff covers shows that when there 
was a demand outside the archiving world, elements useful in archiving became 
much cheaper. However, only one ARSCLIST poster really made good use of them. 
And this is the eternal problem of archiving: we have to rely on technology 
originally developed for other purposes, because there is so little prestige 
in archiving that there is no funding for buying tailor-made solutions.

On another list a reference to a most relevant document has been posted, and 
I recommend it heartily, although I have not finished reading it. It is 
available at:

http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf

and it is called "Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet". It is very 
sobering reading. Fortunately, in other places there are still those who work 
on an easily accessible and durable (non-migration-requiring) medium. It is 
my personal view that that is the only long-term viable solution.

Kind regards,


George


> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steven C. Barr" <[log in to unmask]> 
> To: [log in to unmask] 
> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 8:14:28 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] 16" transcription disc housing & moving audio
> collections 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]> 
> > Thornton Hagert wrote: 
> >> Oh, for the Good-Old-Days when milk-crates were milk-crates ! 
> >> 
> >> 
> > Not really. They were made of wire then and totally unsuitable for 
> > anything but glass quart bottles. . 
> > 
> I actually have one of those "wire" milk boxes out in my garage! As you 
> note, it isn't good for 78's. The "golden age" of milk boxes was in the 
> mid-seventies, at least in the Toronto area...Sealtest used what look to 
> be fiberglas boxes, which are VERY durable...they were red in colour. 
> There was a "second issue" of the newer smaller boxes...these are very 
> hard to find, and are green in colour...! However, I was given about 300 
> or so of the red ones, by a variety-store owner...he had been "caught" 
> with them when the size was changed, and as a result the dairy no longer 
> wanted them (nor would they pay his deposit on them...!). 
> 
> Steven C. Barr 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Brandon Burke 
> Archivist for Recorded Sound Collections 
> Hoover Institution Archives 
> Stanford University 
> Stanford, CA 94305-6010 
> vox: 650.724.9711 
> fax: 650.725.3445 
> email: [log in to unmask]