Preserving the originals

I though it would be a good idea to cover, in a little more detail, a concept that I presented in the post titled "Why preserve information (Does it go bad)?" - the value of preserving the original source of information. Once we have a digital copy of something, why do we really need to keep the original? I've heard this argument before, especially from those who do not work as some form of preservation either professional or personal and I think that it is important to discuss the value of an original in the context of preservation.

The 'original':

Going once again back to my handy dandy desk dictionary, the definition for the work original is as follows:

NOUN:

1archaic : the source or cause from which something arises; specifically : originator

2 a: that from which a copy, reproduction, or translation is made b: a work composed firsthand

(original, 2008)

What does this have to do with preservation? Well, in his article "The importance of preserving paper-based artifacts in a digital age", Robert Bee presents an interesting point of view - that the process of digitizing information, and choosing how to present it, we are making editorial decisions that fundamentally alter the information itself. He also stated that by abstracting the information itself from the form, we are removing a valuable part of that information, part of it's original context is lost, as is the assurance that no alterations have been made (Bee, 2008).


The Devil is in the Details:

As evidence of this loss, Bee presents the case of microfilm as support for his position, with the specific example of newspapers on microfilm. He pointed out that colors were lost, issues were missing in part or in total, and that these problems were only discovered after the originals were lost (Bee, 2008), therefore preventing any future access to those lost bits of information. Earlier in this blog I discussed how information does not exist in a vacuum - how it has contextually related information that enhances it's value by establishing relationships with other information. When information is preserved, should this information not also be preserved in order to fully preserve it's value? Is not preserving information in the most usable format the goal of preservation?

Changing Standards:

As technological advancements are made in the field of preservation, so too change the standards. Microfilm was the standard media for storage of printed materials such as newspapers and other periodicals in the past, but now the standard is digitization by way of scanning. Scanning expands our ability to preserve information greatly, and because of that the standards for preservation have changed to reflect the new abilities of this new format. For example, it is now part of the standard to be able to reproduce a copy from the electronic version that will faithfully reproduce the original visual quality (Wentzel, 2007), something that was no possible with previous preservation formats.

The Future:

As storage formats continue to change as new technology is created, new issues will likely be discovered as well, although not necessarily immediately as noted in the above example. Moore's law states that the number of transistors on a computer chip will double approximately every two years (Moore, 1965)*. This translates to a very rapid rate of technological development, implying that there is not much time to research every aspect of any given technology before a new technology replaces it.

* Interestingly enough, the only known original copy of this article was found recently in a personal archive of magazines - the collector felt that while most institutions were throwing out computer magazines at the time, these would one day be valuable! (BBC, 2005).

In the context of preservation, this means that as we make choices for preserving information we need to keep in mind that newer, and perhaps better, technology will arrive constantly, and with it new opportunities for preserving more of the context of information. Just as microfilm could not preserve colors while modern digital format can, it seems completely believable that a some point in the near future a new technology will come around that will further expand our ability to better preserve every aspect of any given piece of information, not just what we deem worthy of saving. And, given that, is it not prudent to try preserve the originals when we can for just such an occasion?

Suggested Further Reading:

Preserving the Illustrated Text

Findings and Recommendations of the Council on Library and Information Resources

Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials

works cited:

BBC. (2005). Moore's Law original issue found. Retrieved June 2, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4472000/4472549.stm.

Bee, R. (2008). The importance of preserving paper-based artifacts in a digital age. The library quarterly, 78(2), 179-.

Moore, G. (1965). Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics, (38)8.

original. (2008). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved June 2, 2008, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/original.

Wentzel, L. (2007). Scanning for digitization projects. Computers in libraries, 27(3), 6-.