I think it might be a bit optimistic to say that archive offices are
geared up to migrating electronic materials to new media as they come
along. I am sure that they are nearly all aware that there will be a
need to do so. (They also have to remember that material may be
software dependant and something will have to be done about that too).
CD-ROMs have a limited life but no one can be sure what it is. But
putting a web site on to CD-ROM is certainly better than not storing it
anywhere.
Printing out a web site and putting the output into the archives is
problematical.
In the first place you are not putting the web site into the archives.
You are putting in the information but not the way it works. Many of
the advantages of computers are lost.
Secondly while pencil and paper might last a long time (and parchment
and ink longer, and stone and chisel even longer than that) it is not at
all clear how long computer printer ink will last. Colour printing is
particularly suspect - even Epson's latest claim is for 20 years.
Thirdly, printing out on archive quality paper and with the photos in
nice glossy and reasonably durable print, would be prohibitively
expensive. An important feature of web sites is that they can be very
cheap. There is no way my local history web site (the Wolverhampton
History and Heritage web site), which contains over 100mb, could be
printed out, in a reasonably durable form, at any price we could afford.
We could not even afford to do it once, let alone every time it changes
- which is several times a week.
We have opted for making two copies of a CD-ROM every month or so.
--
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton, UK.
tel: +44 01902 763246
look: no quotes, no graphics!
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