I have been working on family history on and off now for about 40 years and more recently have been looking at the question of the preservation of historical records and yet have the ability to have access to these same records in the future.
I was referred to an article on this subject of the preservation of digital documents at http://www.clir.org/pubs/archives/ensuring.pdf Paper is called Ensuring the longevity of digital information by Jeff Rothenberg This paper looks into the future and considers how we may be looking at records in say 50 years time. that is would there be an operating system available ( other than in a museum ) that could accept a CD of the year 2010 I believe that the present CD is currently being phased out by manufacturers and being replaced by other media. I raise this issue relating to CDs as a circular came to me recently from a professional photographer who reported that images he placed on a KODAK Gold cd in 2002 have now disappeared. The photographer recommended that users try a product called PRODISC that is regarded as good for between 50 and 300 years. Not sure how that has been tested but I found it a issue of concern that images committed to CD could be lost in such a short time As to the family history this means we cannot ignore the need to place written copies in strategic places so that future generations have ready access That is based on the assumption that in a couple of 100 years we will still be speaking English in Australia. I hope so Were others aware that CDs had this limited life span Graeme Winters New 27 Imac user -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
