[ih] Museum archiving (was: Re: IENs)

[vinton cerf]

there is a whole website (probably many) devoted to the definition of
archive:

OAIS.INFO

v




On Sat, May 8, 2021 at 8:51 AM Craig Partridge via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Hi Dave:
>
> You asked about museums and their commitment to archiving.  As someone who
> was trained as a historian and still does occasional archival work for fun,
> I'll hazard a somewhat structural answer and then John D. can comment on
> computing museums.
>
> One can assess archives on at least three dimensions:
>
> * Commitment to ensuring their collections are preserved for centuries to
> come.  This requires money (for fire suppression and temperature monitoring
> and the like) and also requires careful evaluation and planning (preserving
> paper for instance, is different from preserving paintings, which is
> different from preserving fabrics).
>
> * Commitment to creating finding aids (catalogs, indexes, collection
> descriptions) that enable researchers to find items in the collections.
>
> * Commitment to making their collections available for research (or public
> display).
>
> The last may surprise folks but there are a number of institutions that
> have strong views about who should and should not be able to use their
> collections, usually to the detriment of scholarship and the public
> interest.
>
> (And, if you want an example of exactly how not to do all three, consider
> the team of scholars who were originally given control of the Dead Sea
> Scrolls).
>
> Craig
>
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