[AT] Spam> Re: OT--taped audio to CD audio??

[Roy Morgan]

On Mar 29, 2009, at 6:50 PM, David Bruce wrote:

> Larry,
>
> Digital archiving 101 might be off topic but I'm listening.
>
> I have already moved to archiving much of my monthly correspondence
> (bills, receipts, etc) to digital form for ease of retrieval.

One of my former co-workers at NIST (formerly National Bureau of  
Standards) had been the microfilm expert there.  That is, he knew the  
Archivist of the United States by first name, and had spend his career  
studying and improving microfilm image storage science and practice.  
His conclusion after a life of working with archives was this  
(paraphrased by me):

If you want ease of use and practical daily application, go digital.  
Nothing better.  But don't count on any record to last for long.

If you really want to archive something, microfilm is the only  
answer.  Period.

His frame of reference for archiving was "in perpetuity".  That is  
nearly forever.

If you are storing your financial records and tax things, do keep in  
mind the regulations demand that you only keep 5 or 7 years of stuff  
(or something like that).  If you are interested in family  
photographs, do ask yourself how long anyone might be interested in  
Aunt Matilda's 90th birthday party pictures.  If you want to preserve  
Uncle Henry's WW-I military record for 10 generations, either do NOT  
put it on CD, or be prepared for continuous data migration.

Roy

Roy Morgan
k1lky at earthlink.net
529 Cobb St.
Groton NY, 13073