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The art of archiving by Michael Maunder, from Ag27 |
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Page 3 0f 9 |
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So far so good, but the associated hardware is a different story. The storage medium for the image (non-paper that is) has become the big issue. There are always exceptions to any general rule so what we need to know are the statistics. Some Daguerreotypes have survived for nearly two centuries, but most have not in a modern polluted atmosphere. Therefore the archival permanence is not decided by the exceptionally long exceptions, rather by the ‘worst case’ expectancy. If a computer disk fails after a few weeks, that is the deciding factor. The same is effectively true if the disk technology becomes obsolete. And in that sense at least, no digital medium can be said to be permanent. The computer I’m using here has only just replaced one using floppy disks rather than a hard drive, and these days 5 and a quarter inch disks are a complete mystery to a younger generation. Even 3.5in floppies are under notice and as for CDs, they are going to RW and DVD, and so on. Wherever and whenever an original picture is solely kept on any digital storage medium the prime consideration has to be the future-proofing. Each generation of copying might lead to corruption. The jury is out on that problem because we are not so concerned with absolute data preservation as with a final image to be admired and drooled over. When copying the digital information from a digital original it is an easy task to check for accuracy. Preserving an original print is a different issue, as discussed later. How long can we expect a digital recording medium to last? Nobody can be sure. What we need to get clear from the discussion to follow is not our own selfish interests, but those of generations to follow. Once an image hits the streets it becomes part of the culture and historians will be interested in it. Your picture might be the only one in existence to show a place or person, for instance; the tragedies of Concord or New York have already become classic video pictures. Tapes and tape streamers were a popular choice for archiving data and are still widely used and offer a lot of advantages. It used to be said that this type of magnetic medium had a life of around 3 years - maybe. The deciding factors appear to be outside magnetic fields and loss of magnetic strength. Questions of plastics stability in the tape itself and holding cassette mean that tapes ought to be run through at regular intervals, and that is not my idea of permanent storage until needed. It is ideal for the purpose, though. Rapid backup in frequent system crashes; the tapes get run often enough! Next Page >> |
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