Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Why preserve physical books?

The Internet Archive is building a physical archive for the long term preservation of one copy of every book, record, and movie they are able to attract or acquire. Everyday access to these materials is still expected to occur through digital means, and the physical archive is designed for long-term preservation of materials with only occasional, collection-scale retrieval. Because of this, they can create optimized environments for physical preservation and organizational structures that facilitate appropriate access. The Archive likens their system to a seed bank – storing important objects in safe ways to be used for redundancy, authority, and in case of catastrophe.

Full article here.

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