Jumbo shrimp. Living dead. Digital preservation…yes, you read correctly! While many disagree, I would categorize digital preservation as another oxymoron. Case in point: Government information, while digital, is proving very difficult to preserve. One day a digital report is available on a govt website, the next day it’s a broken link. And the problem isn’t just with federal government sites, but it is a widespread phenomenon with state and local government entities as well.
The NY Times just published a story on this and has a fantastic quote by one of my colleagues at the Arizona State Library. Richard Pearce-Moses sums up the concern many of us digital librarians and archivists have: “My biggest worry is that even with the best and brightest minds working on this problem, the risks are so great that we may lose significant portions of our history.” [Read the whole story on the NY Times]
