I have been reading the SciFi fantasy trilogy "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" by Terry Brooks. I'd like to share with you what I discovered in several chapters toward the end of the second volume that speak to preservation of information and the future. The essence of the plot, to that point, is that "the last of the Druids" and several persons picked carefully for their special talents, have embarked on a journey to a land several months distant to recover a treasure of profound magic that is more than 3000 years old. Toward the end of the second book, it suddenly became clear to me that the main characters were not from a civilization of "Middle Earth", but a time 3000 years into the future from our present time. The area which they came to explore was a vast place of metal that was in ruins from "the Great War" and was guarded by laser beams that shot "fire threads" and mechanical, robotic dogs. The treasure that the Druid was seeking, he thought, were books with all the knowledge of the world housed in what would have been called a Library. He believed this knowledge would alleviate the poverty and correct the lack of knowledge in his civilization. But as he searched the building in which he knew they were housed, he found no large shelving units nor closets in which such items could have been preserved. He then looked for an alternate method of preserving the information and discovered a room in the hub of this vast electronic village with machinery that held disks. Voices could be heard as the disks were constantly being reformatted automatically onto new disks to prevent loss of information. He realized at that moment that there was no knowledge nor equipment in his world that could translate any of the material on the disks, and he had to make the decision to abandon taking the disks back because they would be useless, or destroying the monster that controlled the systems and therefore destroy the disks as well. Does this not speak to the dilemma that we constantly discuss on the ListServ about the longevity of disks and the constant turnover of the equipment to access the information they contain? Thank about it .... What will happen in 3000 years when a civilization of unknown proportions seeks to discover and decipher the contents of the information that we have preserved? What will be their best chance ... Paper or disks? Lynne F. Wohleber Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh 900 Oliver Building 535 Smithfield St. Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412-325-0087 x138 FAX: 412-471-5591 [log in to unmask] A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>