A few days ago I published a Plus Edition article entitled, Comment on Genealogy Libraries and Buildings. Several newsletter readers soon added their comments on the Plus Edition subscribers' web site at http://www.eogn.com/blogplus/2007/07/_comment_on_genealogy_librarie.html. You can read all the comments there. A Plus Edition subscriber's user name and password will be required.
While the original article focused on books and the buildings that house those books, the comments soon switched to a discussion of how to store records in digital format. David Greene, coeditor and publisher of The American Genealogist (TAG), rightly pointed out that storing records in any form of digital format entails some risk.
David is one of the leading genealogy experts of our time and a person that I listen to when he cares to share his observations. Indeed, he triggered something in my mind: "What do I do with my collection of eight-track tapes?"
Eight-track tapes are a perfect example. The tapes are probably still readable now but the eight-track players are mighty hard to find.
Will the computer disks and tapes of today eventually become as obsolete as the eight-track tapes of the seventies? Many archivists think this is a major problem, but I don't think so.
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