CBHL sponsored two posters at the Congress, to help to publicize some of the issues underlying the
symposium. Here are the abstracts, and full text is available on linked pages:
You're creating history today - Will it survive tomorrow?
Charlotte Tancin
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation;
Malcolm Beasley
The Natural History Museum, London;
John F. Reed,
New York Botanical Garden)
Several national and international associations see botany as a field for which
inadequate preservation strategies exist. Librarians and archivists are responsible for
preserving the record of botanical science - a large, complex and daunting task. We can't
save everything, so how do we choose? Data and records created for one purpose may be
useful for other purposes later. Scientists must think about their work, published and
unpublished, print and electronic. What documentation should outlive them? Who decides?
Who keeps it, and how? The need for preservation transcends boundaries, requiring global
thinking and local action. We need many coordinated preservation efforts all over the world,
and information on their scope and status. How can the potential for global preservation
action in botany be realized?
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John F. Reed,
New York Botanical Garden)
Charlotte Tancin
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation;
Malcolm Beasley
The Natural History Museum, London;
Many information professionals find digitization great for access, poor for preservation.
What does this mean for long-term accessibility of the record of scientific work in botany?
Electronic information has become an alternative to traditional publication and information
sharing, but it can deteriorate more quickly than paper. Disks fail randomly, and damaged
files look like undamaged ones until they're opened (or fail to open). The ephemeral nature
of electronic information, the need for constant data conversion, and the resources needed
for long-term storage and retrieval all raise problems for preservation. Magnetic media are
also at risk. Libraries are wrestling with these issues now. Only internationally recognized
standards and an understanding of preservation requirements and limitations will safeguard
scientific knowledge for the future.
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