This really interested me a lot and even after I finished writing the paper, I found that there was so much information that went unused simply because I didn’t have the time to sort through it. In light of that, I’d like to continue researching that area for LIB240.
One of the statistics that really got me thinking was this:
Of the 72,000 indexed pages included in 1994’s first full-text search engine, Web Crawler, none of the top 25 pages listed exists in any form today (Kirchoff, 2008, p. 285).It really hit me then. What history has already been lost to us? How do we combat that? How do we decide what is worth preserving? I know a lot of people who have vintage advertisement posters. Will people in the future look at banner ads or LOLcats and want them as the background on their future computer? To us, that seems so silly. But how many people thought that those signs that say “Refreshing Coca-Cola, 5 cents” would become iconic?
Long gone are the Tripod and Angelfire web pages I created as a 13 year old at computer camp (read: NERD). I may never again see the picture of my childhood Dalmatian that I edited for hours in an early version of Photoshop. I’m certain that it’s on a 3.5 inch floppy disk lurking somewhere in my parents’ basement, but would it even be readable anymore? I don’t know.
Therein lies the problem. Sure, I can back up my iTunes library until the cows come home, but how do I know that mp3s will still be in use five years from now? Even if I save everything I have a hundred times over, there’s no guarantee that it will remain accessible as technology evolves.
So who makes the decisions? Raise your hand if you’re in Library School! It’s up to those of us who have chosen librarianship as a profession to not only archive these materials, but ensure that their usability remains intact. Right now groups of librarians across the world are hard at work developing plans for digital repositories and hoping to develop some kind of international standards for electronic preservation. Unfortunately, with the economy being so shaky, funding for this has been reduced significantly.
It’s important to realize how crucial preservation is. We cannot learn from the past if we let it disappear. Bailing out banks and major industries may be a great short-term solution to boost the economy, but projects like digital preservation, construction, and environmentally responsible engineering are what will create long-term jobs.
And as library professionals, I think it’s important to accept the responsibility and embrace the challenges ahead of us.
-CMC
Reference
Kirchoff, A. J. (2008). Digital Preservation: challenges and implementation. Learned
Publishing, 21.4, 285-294. Retrieved from Library, Information Science & Technology database.
