[LINK] FM: 'In archival we trust ...'

[Roger Clarke]

[A nice Abstract at least ...

In archiving we trust: Results from a workshop at Humboldt University in Berlin
by Michael Seadle and Eke Greifeneder
First Monday 13, 1 (7 January 2008)
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2089/1923

If 25 specialists in preserving scholarly information had sat 
together in June of 1907 at the University of Berlin on Unter den 
Linden (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), they could likely have 
agreed that materials stored in the libraries of one of the world's 
great research universities in the capitol of the richest and most 
powerful state in Europe could reasonably be trusted to survive long 
term. One hundred years later, after the events of the twentieth 
century had assaulted the collections with fire, water, looters, and 
censorship, representatives of four digital archiving systems came 
together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their systems 
face-to-face in front of an audience of librarians, who would have to 
choose whether any of these systems could be trusted to overcome the 
unknown events of the twenty-first century. A key conclusion was the 
need for interoperability and to pool efforts. An alternative to 
collaboration may be to let archiving systems complete on price, 
performance and advertising, but then as customers in that market, 
libraries need to think about how we can test long-term archiving, so 
that we have real evidence to decide whether the claims of 
reliability make sense.

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW