Why preservation matters

A new report from the European Community on scientific information in the digital age contains a sobering reminder of the importance of information preservation. During the recent ‘anthrax alert’, the British Library received multiple enquiries for research data on the topic. Since research on anthrax practically stopped in the 1950s there were few places with comprehensive and authoritative holdings on the subject. Since the record of human knowledge predates any one of us by centuries, and given the certainty that some information not currently deemed useful will prove invaluable in the future, long-term planning and policies for storing and making accessible this record would seem vital. Want to trust this to the ‘free market’? Find the report at: http://tinyurl.com/29qxjg. Reminds me of the time Afghanistan hit the news a few years back. The map library at UT, one of the great ones, received so much traffic that it practically drowned the system and forced a shutdown. So, you never know you need it until you need it, and then you better be able to access it in a hurry.