Welcome to another exciting episode of FGI’s Not Just Blogs! When last we left our daring document do-gooders, they were examining clues pointing to the problem of Authenticity. Collective "Jenkies" let loose when they came to the realization that their online copies of Distinguishing Bolts from Screws were only as authentic as the trust they could invest in the Web sites hosting them, and no amount of pure technology could replace the security that comes from trust. Luckily, libraries – with a primary mission to deliver authentic information and a long history of success doing it – are well-positioned to continue the work we trust them to do in delivering government information.
Today we find our gutsy govdockers cracking into the Vault of Preservation.
To join along in the adventure, click on the “Issues” link at the top of FGI’s pages.
Then click on “Preservation” in the Issues box.
Once inside the Vault of Preservation, stand in awe of the treasures therein. Catch a glimpse of the problems preserving digital data in the issue brief — and shriek in terror!
Digital decay — Yikes!
Obsolete file formats — Zoinks!
Intentional, malicious removal of information from centralized repositories — Oh, no!
Thank goodness libraries are working with projects like LOCKSS to secure permanent public access to electronic government information. Whew!
(Oh, and, by the way, if you happen to have the answer to these troubling preservation questions, could you please drop us a line in the comments? Thanks!)
Join us next week when Shinjoung leads us through government information issues of privacy, and you’ll hear Daniel say:
And besides all that, what we need is a decentralized, distributed system of depositing electronic files to local libraries willing to host them.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
OK, what’s Jenky(ies)?
Zoinks! I meant “Jinkies!”