 |
 |
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, Russ Hamm wrote: > A cautionary note: My experience with IT departments tells me that you need > to have at the least a supervisory role of an archivist or someone like > that who truly understands the 'big picture' - not only the significance > and value of the 'information' but also the necessity to adhere to high > standards for data integrity, backup routines, uninterrupted power supplies > and the like. My belief is that organizations have turned over much too > much power to network engineers and technicians (IT departments) - just > because no one else understands the technology. IT too often tells > organizational management what they have to do rather than the other way > around. Just one man's opinion. I agree. On more than one occasion I have given a negative review to a grant application for this very reason. From my perspective, "outsourcing," even when it is done between differing agencies within a large organization is often seen as an excuse to abdicate responsibility and the need for having any inhouse expertise in the agency contracting within the larger institution...or outside that institution. Along those same lines, I am concerned that too often I find libraries, in particular, sending out reformatting work without having adequate knowledge to write informed contracts and specifications and then not having anyone on staff with the expertise, or the equipment to monitor the quality of the work. And perhaps somewhat related...using some vendor for long term storage...how long will that vendor be in business, what rights does the owner of the information have, who will specify the formatting of the information, etc. For me, I haven't placed my retirement investments in one mutual fund...similarly, I don't believe in placing all my eggs in one basket. While it has often been mentioned on this list, a perspective which I share, that the best way to insure information will survive is to diversify...modalities of storage and locations and vendors...Ok, so the copyrights don't help us with this...It just crossed my mind...what say we take all of the speeches of those legislators who work on the copyrights and "accidentally" erase the files. Then tell them that all of their great oratory has been lost...and that they couldn't have been backed up due to the copyrights... Maybe then we could have regional depositories of reformatted information and maybe...one might not need to go to the holding library to audition a recording. Karl (hoping the copyrights will be revised before I die so I can hear some of the things that interest me, items which are locked away due to the copyrights)