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Peter, Thanks for the link to Steve Bailey's paper. I will have to read it tonight. In the meantime, based upon the blurb below, I think there are some points to consider. First, self-storage makes sense from a financial point of view. The sofa or the record is a fixed cost. It is an asset. The emails, as such, are not an asset if they are CCed or simply for information, or just there because no one can be bothered to delete the invitation to the latest conference. Second, the self-storage "craze", as such, makes cultural sense in an age of austerity. My parents grew up in the US Great Depression so they have a different view to retaining items like "old sofas". Even from a cultural perspective, there is an economic argument, which is the third point. Third, sofas and others assets retain value either as sunk cost or at least a replacement costs. The sunk cost is the £200 spent 5 years ago for a sofa. The replacement cost is the £1000 you would need to replace the sofa today. Therefore, if the item is still working and I of use, then there is value to it. If it was money, would people throw it away? Fourth, if nothing else, the item has a barter or emotional value. A sofa can be handed down or donated to the "right" cause. Fifth, the item could be sold in a future state. If there was a pure market, one that self-cleared, the sofa could be sold and one could be bought when needed. However, life (even in the days of eBay) is not that neat and clean. After all no one buys disposable clothing or disposable plates for all of their needs. :) By contrast, information does not have that same value. However, there are two different ways to look at information value. One is to look at from a compliance view, I need this email because it is a record and without it we face a DPA issue or a E-Discovery issue. Second, there is a value for the opportunity it contains, i.e. there are ideas or something of value. However, in comparison to sofas and records, my guess is those emails are less likely. However, that does raise a question about how we measure the value of the information we hold, which I mentioned on my blog. http://thoughtmanagement.wordpress.com/author/lawrenceserewicz/ (sorry for the shameless plug). Perhaps we need a metric to measure the value of the information within the emails (rather than worrying about them as emails as such) and thereby find a way to determine our approach to them. Best, Lawrence From: The UK Records Management mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of PeterK Sent: 01 September 2011 14:57 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Records management futurewatch: The storage addiction Records management futurewatch: The storage addiction The link between a story about people's apparent addiction to paying to store old sofas, records, magazines that they no longer have room for at home and a critique of email management strategies over the past 15 years or so is not, perhaps, immediately obvious. And yet I was certainly struck by many of the same underlying trends that I alluded to in a recent paper I gave to the Digital Preservation Coalition's Email Preservation Workshop entitled: Email management: Fifteen wasted years and counting and the the piece featured on today's BBC website about 'The self storage craze'<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14718478> http://bit.ly/qYmYi2 Source: http://rmfuturewatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/storage-addiction.html See if people are clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/qYmYi2+ Try the bitly.com<http://bitly.com> sidebar to see who is talking about a page on the web: http://bitly.com/pages/sidebar For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask] ________________________________ Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However, we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking procedures. To view the list archives go to: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the words UNSUBSCRIBE RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask]