Strategies for the transfer and preservation of audio carriers
Author: Johan Favoreel, VRT Music Archive“Keep your original carriers”, is a rather peculiar slogan for someone who is occupied with the migration of ‘threatened species’ to a digital domain on a daily basis …
It seems logic that these ‘threatened species’ are actually analogue carriers. The fact that digital carriers are also subject to deterioration is a whole new given fact. The digital code becomes unreadable and is irreparable. This stands in contrast with the analogue carriers; they age and their quality decreases, but until they completely degrade the material is still readable.
‘Why digitise given this context,’ is what one could think. The answer to this is not as simple, and depends on the strategy you wish to carry out when preserving or disclosing audio material you own. (…)
This text was written on the occasion of the PACKED seminar ‘Best before / Use by … ?’ on the preservation of analogue and digital carriers, taking place on October 28, 2008.
Click here to read the full article. Language: Dutch.