[ARSCLIST] New Committee?

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

We need a committee called, "When is good enough good enough?"  It would look at commonly technology related to various preservation activities and suggest what works now.  

Our preoccupation with new and emerging audio technologies is having an unanticipated effect on those who read these lists and whose expertise lies elsewhere.  They are putting preservation projects on hold, afraid to do the "wrong" thing, perhaps compromising the standards, stated or implied, by funding sources.  Some are being diverted from their true mission, implementing preservation programs.

My first candidate is the present CD 44.1/16 bit recording system using gold reflective layer discs.  Give the less than wealthy institutional users the OK to begin and/or continue preservation projects.   They should be presented with an idea of what is OK to do in this format and what might benefit substantially while awaiting or farming out to a better equipped facility those items where what is lost by going to CD is significant enough to be worth the wait and, surely, greater expense.  

This should be discussed with the technically informed and a set of "get something done now" criteria, administratively independent of such groups, should be compiled to keep biting at the backlog.

Steve Smolian

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