TFPL associate and trainer David Bowen comments on the topical issue of digital preservation:
Is inertia good for information? No. Resistance to change, the tendency of organisations or individuals to keep dong the same things in the same ways, is fatal to your information management and to your information assets. Change is going to happen whether we like it or not, and whether we plan for it or not: people will retire or move on; computers will be upgraded or replaced; software will be upgraded, replaced, or just disappear; and new technologies (like Flickr, Twitter, Blackberries, Google Wave) will appear and be used in your organisation or industry.
Digital Preservation, asking the question "Will we still be able to read (use, repurpose) this digital asset in 5 years, or 50 years?", is part of the solution. So avoid inertia and the rapid, invisible loss of your digital assets. Embark on the digital preservation roller-coaster: it is easy to get started; the ride will be exhilarating; and you'll have all your assets at the end of it!
David Bowen, who specialises in this area has worked with computers since 1968, and has been concerned with preserving, sharing and using computerized data since 1972. He was the Architect on the Digital Preservation Testbed (a seminal digital preservation initiative of the government of the Netherlands) and has been working in Information Management and Digital Preservation with clients in industry and government since 1994. He has recently developed a training course in the practical aspects of Digital Preservation for us.
Claire Valentine
Training and Events Officer
David's course represents an exciting and timely addition to our records management courses. Just today, a TFPL Associate mailed us with news about a new CD format that would store data for a thousand years! David will have much to say about the technologies, the strategies and the issues surrounding digital preservation.
Posted by: johndavies | 21 July 2009 at 21:05