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So store it digitally where it takes up less space. No need to keep a physical copy around.

394549 8y ago
> So store it digitally where it takes up less space. No need to keep a physical copy around. That's a glib answer that ignores the complexity of digital preservation. When you preserve something, you want it to last long term--decades to centuries. Storing things digitally entails choosing software, file formats, and storage media; and the long-term commitment to continuously copy and recopy, convert and reconvert, and test and retest as the technology you choose becomes obsolete. Plus, with digitization, you have the added risk of correctable scanning errors becoming permanent, once the originals are destroyed. Digital works are some of the most ephemeral ever created, to the point where future historians may experience our era as a kind of dark age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age
- shittyadmin 8y ago
  Don't bullshit me, copying files and applying error correction is trivial compared to maintaining paper copies of books which degrade and burn. We write emulators for just about every popular old computer system, so even if you have to use a dated reader to extract the info, should be possible. We have whole organizations dedicated to digital preservation that would have no issue doing this for millions of books.
  - 394549 8y ago
    > Don't bullshit me, copying files and applying error correction is trivial compared to maintaining paper copies of books which degrade and burn. The people who are actually in the business of digital preservation disagree. To wit: I learned the other day that there are businesses that specialize in transferring digital scans to microfilm to better preserve them (and also ones that go the other way to increase accessibility). Digital and analog formats are complementary. But it's the software engineer's burden to lecture every other specialist that they're doing it all wrong, and computers, only computers, are the answer and way forward.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

> So store it digitally where it takes up less space. No need to keep a physical copy around. That's a glib answer that ignores the complexity of digital preservation. When you preserve something, you want it to last long term--decades to centuries. Storing things digitally entails choosing software, file formats, and storage media; and the long-term commitment to continuously copy and recopy, convert and reconvert, and test and retest as the technology you choose becomes obsolete. Plus, with digitization, you have the added risk of correctable scanning errors becoming permanent, once the originals are destroyed. Digital works are some of the most ephemeral ever created, to the point where future historians may experience our era as a kind of dark age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age

shittyadmin 8y ago
Don't bullshit me, copying files and applying error correction is trivial compared to maintaining paper copies of books which degrade and burn. We write emulators for just about every popular old computer system, so even if you have to use a dated reader to extract the info, should be possible. We have whole organizations dedicated to digital preservation that would have no issue doing this for millions of books.
- 394549 8y ago
  > Don't bullshit me, copying files and applying error correction is trivial compared to maintaining paper copies of books which degrade and burn. The people who are actually in the business of digital preservation disagree. To wit: I learned the other day that there are businesses that specialize in transferring digital scans to microfilm to better preserve them (and also ones that go the other way to increase accessibility). Digital and analog formats are complementary. But it's the software engineer's burden to lecture every other specialist that they're doing it all wrong, and computers, only computers, are the answer and way forward.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]