[1] From: Dennis Cintra Leite <Dennis@eaesp.fgvsp.br> (20)
Subject: FW: 10.8 impermanence
[2] From: Haradda@aol.com (17)
Subject: Re: 10.14 citation and impermanence
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 13:11:37 -0300
From: Dennis Cintra Leite <Dennis@eaesp.fgvsp.br>
Subject: FW: 10.8 impermanence
The cost of electronic storage is falling exponentially. The space needed
for this storage is becoming infinitesimal as compared to a "paper"
library. There is no valid excuse for junking any bibliographical
material whatsoever. I would go as far as saying that throwing away
information is a crime against humanity, closely akin to book burning. As
to the relevance and/or value of this material that is a matter for
present and future scholars to study, judge, say and publish but never to
destroy.
--------------------------------------
dennis cintra leite
dennis@eaesp.fgvsp.br
sao paulo business school (eaesp/fgv)
snail mail:av.9 de julho 2029
sao paulo, sp 01313-902
brazil
py2-etn
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 18:24:44 -0400
From: Haradda@aol.com
Subject: Re: 10.14 citation and impermanence
First of all let me say that I am a bit outside scholarly citation and
impermanence of electronic records in my work. But I am inside because I
deal in public electronic records. I have been very concerned with the
impermanence of electronic records with the mistakes that crop up when older
backups are mistakenly put on the public systems. Files that go random. In
my field we have multiple backups of electronic data, print it out hardcopy
and/or microfilm off screen everything. With the worst case we can
reconstruct from microfilm. If you have enough places where you have stored
copies and if you keep updating the technology so you can retreve the data
then you will be ok.
If I know my history we have this problem everytime a new technology comes
along. And things just get lost. Wars, fires, floods, ignorance all have
lost infomation in the past. But so has technology. When we went from
scrolls to codex's we lost many books because no one cared enough to copy
them. As I recall some Roman poet's work survived in only one copy that was
copied in the 14th century. An then the original copy was lost. We need to
make sure that information gets spread around to everyone. That is the only
way I can see that it can be saved.