In regard to real-world standards, BATTIN argued the need to redefine the
concept of archive and to begin to think in terms of life cycles. In
the past, the naive assumption that paper would last forever produced a
cavalier attitude toward life cycles. The transient nature of the
electronic media has compelled people to recognize and accept upfront the
concept of life cycles in place of permanency.
Digital standards have to be developed and set in a cooperative context
to ensure efficient exchange of information. Moreover, during this
transition period, greater flexibility concerning how concepts such as
backup copies and archival copies in the CXP are defined is necessary,
or the opportunity to move forward will be lost.
In terms of cooperation, particularly in the university setting, BATTIN
also argued the need to avoid going off in a hundred different
directions. The CPA has catalyzed a small group of universities called
the La Guardia Eight--because La Guardia Airport is where meetings take
place--Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Penn State, Tennessee,
Stanford, and USC, to develop a digital preservation consortium to look
at all these issues and develop de facto standards as we move along,
instead of waiting for something that is officially blessed. Continuing
to apply analog values and definitions of standards to the digital
environment, BATTIN said, will effectively lead to forfeiture of the
benefits of digital technology to research and scholarship.
Under the second rubric, the politics of reproduction, BATTIN reiterated
an oft-made argument concerning the electronic library, namely, that it
is more difficult to transform than to create, and nowhere is that belief
expressed more dramatically than in the conversion of brittle books to
new media. Preserving information published in electronic media involves
making sure the information remains accessible and that digital
information is not lost through reproduction. In the analog world of
photocopies and microfilm, the issue of fidelity to the original becomes
paramount, as do issues of "Whose fidelity?" and "Whose original?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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