[1335] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Dead trees and humanities
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sue Martin)
Mon Sep 28 12:31:34 1992
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 11:17:30 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: Sue Martin <SKMARTIN%GUVAX.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Peter Merel says that "CDs and their successors are just as tough as
paper, if not tougher." We had a discussion of this topic on PACS-L
about eighteen months ago, and I am not at all sure that it is clear
that CD-ROMs are, in fact, tougher than paper.
Last year, the National Archives examined the evidence, and decided
that it was not sensible to rely on CD-ROM durability for more than a
handful of years. This conclusion, as I understand it, was based on
problems with oxidation found in some CD-ROMs (and also CDs). While I
have recently heard some people say that they believe that CDs will
last up to 100 years, I haven't heard anyone say *why* they believe
this to be the case: have there been reliable aging tests done?
In any case, we know that acid-free paper will last several hundred
years at least. And while there may be a durable successor technology
to CDs in the near future, we have yet to cope with the obsolescence
of technologies (remember that there's a major problem with the 1960
census data).
Increased and effective use of information technologies is critical
for the future, but I don't think books and paper are going away
very quickly.
Sue Martin
Georgetown University
