[Publib] preservation, last copies, and the safety margin

[Miriam Bobkoff]

A little while ago when PubLibbers were discussing Last Copy 
Depositories, Karen mentioned that "the threshold of survival for 
print materials is much higher than you might think is necessary."

I don't know what that number is, but here at the Lower Elwha Klallam 
Tribe we are starting to think about making digital copies of the 
tribe's audio-tape archive of elders speaking the Klallam language. 
Elwha recently lost one of the two remaining native Klallam speakers 
at age 89. There is no direct connection between the elder's death 
and the fragility of some decades of audio tape; still, it reminded 
the people in the language program of the urgency of protecting the 
audio files.

As part of trying to figure out what has to be done, I wrote to the 
digital preservation system LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) 
http://www.lockss.org/lockss/Home  -- whom I know about because they 
archive the little online poetry magazine I've been doing with a 
friend since 1998-- to ask how many electronic copies LOCKSS thinks 
is the minimum. I just received back the answer. "LOCKSS requires a 
minimum of six copies before we consider the data safe."

Wow. Six digital copies to keep data safe.

Just sharing my astonishment.

But if you happen to know of anyone in a low tech and low-budget 
environment who has pulled off a preservation project for a small 
audio archive, I would love to be in touch with them.


Miriam Bobkoff
presently at Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Library
Port Angeles, WA
    thinking, 'one on the tribe's server, one on DVDs under my 
mattress, one to the State Library, one to Library of Congress, isn't 
there a language archive in Hawaii...'