LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Everyone who's ever worked in a modern office uses Post-Its for something. I use them for coffee cup coasters because, once I tack one down, I know it won't blow off the desk. The design is brilliant and simple and that's probably why no one ever tried to improve on it.

Until MIT got their hands on them.

They've added RFID tags to Post-It notes.

Freak out.

LISTEN. Do you hear it? The bits are dying.

The digital revolution has spawned billions upon billions of gigabytes of data, from the vast electronic archives of government and business to the humblest photo on a home PC. And the trove is growing — the International Data Corporation, a technology research and advisory firm, estimates that by 2011 the digital universe of ones and zeros will be 10 times the size it was in 2006.

But the downside is that much of this data is ephemeral, and society is headed toward a kind of digital Alzheimer’s. What’s on those old floppies stuck in a desk drawer? Can anything be read off that ancient mainframe’s tape drive? Will today’s hard disk be tomorrow’s white elephant?

Data is “the natural resource for the Internet age,” said Francine Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego, a national center for high-performance computing resources. But, she added, “digital data is enormously fragile.” It can degrade as it is stored, copied and transferred between hard drives across data networks. The storage systems might not be around or accessible in the future — it is like putting precious information on eight-track tapes.

Full story in the New York Times.

Jonathan Betz-Zall writes "The mainstream media notices the problem of data
obsolescence in an article by
Bill Virgin ,the main business columnist for the Seattle Post Intelligencer."

Anonymous Patron writes "From CIO Today: Despite the continued use of paper, and to some degree because of it, digital document management seems to be taking on a new level of acceptance. In fact, electronic filing systems are taking hold in all types of organizations. Whether this means converting paper records to digital form or organizing documents that are created electronically in the first place, systems for storing and referring documents are becoming more common and less costly."

tqft writes "JOCK Murphy was delighted. "You wouldn't do this job if you weren't excited by this sort of thing," the State Library manuscripts librarian said after viewing a 13-metre-long document discovered on a rubbish tip."Read the rest of the story here.Sad to think of what else was lost let alone how much will never be preserved.Without a time machine how do you decide what future archeologists, historians and socioligsts will want to know.Once upon a time it was the lives of rulers that consumed academia, now a great focus is on daily life."

Kathleen writes "The Collections for the Future report published June 14 2005 follows an 18-month unquiry by the Museums Association into the condition and use of the UK‘s museum collections.
Over 500 organisations and individuals were consulted and the result is a comprehensive document examining a range of issues from access and acquisition to dispersal and disposal.
The report puts forward a number of examples where museums have done just that. Glasgow Museums Resource Centre is one such example. Opened in 2003, this open store gives the public a chance to view objects that would otherwise have been hidden away due to lack of display space in the city’s museums and galleries."

kmccook writes "This is a press release from SmallTownPapers.

SmallTownPapers is an online gateway to newspapers from small town America -- past and present. Working with publishers from across the country, the company digitally scans current and archived newspapers and then provides online access. Through the SmallTownPapers website, the newspaper archives can be searched by keyword or phrase and viewed as originally printed. SmallTownPapers, Inc. is based in Seattle, WA. For more information visit www.smalltownpapers.com."

Cortez writes "I don't know if this is the truth, but if you do hold a copy you might want to make sure it's still there:"
"Message from Intel

We are looking for the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics Magazine (contains "Moore's Law" article by Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder).

$10,000 for mint condition copy! Will choose based on best condition - take good photos!

Disclaimers:
Library or museum copies ineligible unless sold by those entities.
Intel employees & their families ineligible.
Will consider purchasing addtl copies at a lower price.
Respond only if you have exact match."

An Anonymous Patron shares this story from the CountyTimes.com of Litchfield, CT, about a company who is helping "thousands of small to mid-sized companies nationwide that wanted to know the right questions to ask records management vendors before they went about choosing which one to use."
"The Web-based business has only been live for a month, and, according to Mr. Giess, nearly a thousand customers have signed up already.
For an annual subscription fee of $89.99, subscribers to this new business can receive practical knowledge for storage and management alternatives as it relates to their records, data files and information.
'We give you the right tools to make the right decisions,' Mr. Giess explained. 'It's an extremely unique service.
'We've had a huge response,' he acknowledged. 'There's nothing out there like this for records management on a subscription basis. It's like one-stop shopping.'"