Article: Cultural Suicide via Digitalization (tells us what we don't know)

As digitizationblog wrote, this article is predictable. However, it is a "story" that must be retold over and over again. Although digitization increases access, paper is a better medium for long-term storage. Paper doesn't require special equipment to read. Even microforms can be read with simple (non-electronic) magnifiers.

If we want to use CDs and servers, etc., to store precious materials (especially those where there is no hardcopy equivalent), then we need to solve the problems that cause those media to fail and lose information.

BTW there is a wonderful episode of Stargate SG-1 when the SG-1 team comes across a planet where everyone is connected into the computer network. They trust the network and don't realize that it keeps rewriting history. However, a search of the old paper documents shows the truth. Here the paper had lasted and had not been corrupted (modified).

---

Technorati tag: Digital Preservation