2020 Hindsight
Happy new year! With 2020 hindsight Digital Dark Ages is here! With that in mind, it’s time that we focus on learning from and leveraging the past to inform and improve the future.
Fifteen years ago, while I was in Library School, I was writing my thesis/research paper. One day in the library, I discovered an article that brought me to a complete stop. The article is titled “Titanic 2020.”
It was a scholarly article and an early and compelling warning against the “Digital Dark Age.” More importantly, it pointed out that “organizations that use IT — are generally ill prepared to prevent damage or loss of valuable electronic records or data.”
Though it’s been years since I read it, with 2020 hindsight the Digital Dark Ages still affect me profoundly. It was a Call to Action that raised such specific alarms on a variety of icebergs of technological obsolescence and format change, that I lost sleep! These icebergs, the article warned, would threaten the history and legacy of the Information Age.
As a relatively young archivist, this article had a profound effect on me. Ultimately, it force me to face a long and arduous war against obsolescence. Granted, the war has been occurring for years, but as digital archivists and librarians, we can do something constructive. And, more importantly, my colleagues and I have a responsibility to identify problems and challenges. By doing this, we can face them strategically and expeditiously. If we don’t, our historical legacy may be at risk.
Read the 2000 Titanic 2020 report here courtesy of CENSA (The Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association).
Check out some of the clients with whom we’ve worked to avoid the 2020 Titanic!
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