Double Fold by Nicholson Baker examines issues concerning the physical preservation of materials in libraries and archives, with emphasis placed on the preservation of paper formats. The author examines the effects that new preservation
One question I would ask the author would be what is more important, that the books themselves are worthy of saving, or the information they contain? While Baker does believe that much information, and thus history, is lost by not preserving the physical material they were printed on, does this mean that absolutely every item is worthy of preservation? For example, newspapers are created to be ephemeral modes of keeping information, their to keep a populace informed on what the paper believes is newsworthy. While the information is important to keep, should the physical items themselves be preserved? Does historical preservation inherently imply a pack rat mentality, that everything should be saved? Or should their be selective salvaging of key artifacts?
Baker's take on using modern technology is skeptical. This is understandable, considering the many times it has been used as a excuse to destroy valuable and still viable sources of information. however, this should not preclude librarians involvement in developing digital technology for their collections. Should digital technology replace physical modes of holding information? I believe that Baker does not give enough credit to then current archivists and librarians. Many of them view the digital aspect of archiving as a way to make the records more readily accessible to the general public as opposed to a replacement for the established practices. This kind of mentality is important to maintain as one moves more towards the future. While digital is in ascendancy now, one does not know how it might fare in the future. Even now for example, there are numerous problems associated with compatibility between different generations of software and programs. With new breakthroughs and theories on the use of quantum computers and other forms of data storage, who knows what kind of problems will arise by converting old digital data to new technologies.
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3 comments:
I enjoyed reading your analysis and the many questions you pose most notably your questioning of whether or not, archivists and librarians should engage in “selective salvaging of key artifacts”. The most important and obvious problem with this issue is that it mostly a subjective matter of opinion in deciding whether an artifact, in this case a newspaper, should be preserved or tossed. Who would you suggest we delegate such a task to? Should the responsibility ultimately lie with the head librarian or archivist? Should there be a majority vote on the part of the archival staff? While I do agree with you that “rat-packing” is not necessarily the best solution, I do believe that as public historians, we should make it our priority to save to the best of our ability original copies of manuscripts because as you mention, the ever-changing forms and compatibility of technology pose new problems, especially if we no longer have the original with which to work with.
I think your analysis of Baker's work is very interesting and took a different take on the work than I even thought about. The question I found the most striking out of your post was whether the books themselves or the material they contain more important. I think that it is impossible to truly answer that question since the answer is both. The books themselves are important articles from the past, while the information that is found within is just as important to historians. However, I think that Baker's work would argue that the information inside is important, while keeping them in their original casing.
Your foreshadowing at the very end of your blog is interesting. I feel though that as technology evolves, so to will the ability to utilize whatever digitalized documents may be at that point antiquated. If the purpose of such digitizing is to ensure that future generations can view and use them, then surely one of the priorities will be to also ensure that such programs can be used.
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