Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting WSJ Article on when libraries should discard their holdings.

[phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, and the intellectual types would probably get turned into dinner by 
the bigger stronger moron types (cooked over piles of useless books and 
records).  However, in a nuclear attack, virtually all non-hardened 
electronic devices will be rendered useless by EMP.  EMP can knock out 
computers, and such, hundreds of miles away (far out of range of 
blast/heat).  One of the various first strike scenarios has been to 
detonate nukes in the upper atmosphere, knocking out 
communications/command/control ,on ground and in the atmosphere, of the 
enemy, blinding them.  Looks like we're going that direction--total 
annihilation.  However, until that fateful day, there should be a 
digital version (prevents wear/tear) and a preserved original specimen. 
Phillip

Tom Fine wrote:
> Don, this makes no sense. An occurance that would decimate every copy 
> of every digital data would definitely destroy all other matter, too. 
> Books and records burn faster than computers, last I checked.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 6:56 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting WSJ Article on when libraries 
> should discard their holdings.
>
>
> > On 05/01/07, Tom Fine wrote:
> > > Sorry but this is an uninformed statement. A company like Google or
> > > any other halfway responsible for-profit entity has servers mirrored
> > > and backed up nine ways to Sunday, including information spread all
> > > over the globe in redundant locations. Likely, the data will live on
> > > beyond the printed originals barring a nuclear holocaust, in which
> > > case it really doesn't matter.
> >
> > On the contrary, that is when it matters most. Think of the importance
> > of the few (in some cases one only) copies of Greek and Roman books for
> > the recovery of European civilisation after the Dark Ages.
> >
> > Hard copy books and 78 rpm records are more likely to survive in a
> > useful state than digital data.
> >
> > Regards
> > --
> > Don Cox
> > doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx