Abstract
The archival mission presupposes stewardship, which can provide the field with a mechanism to carve a distinctive niche within automated environments. The author warns against the untutored embrace of the "cutting-edge" of new technology. Instead, he suggests the need for study and reliance on standards, as well as the adoption of a process-oriented view for preservation management to deal with rapid technological change. He discusses the effects of automation on archival theory, presents common sense guidelines, and includes a brief analysis of specific magnetic and optical storage media. He also proposes a new archival law: With each new storage medium, archivists must reexamine their theory and expect to meet new preservation challenges. Original version presented before the Society of Ohio Archivists, 11 April 1991, with funding under a grant from the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). Revisions were facilitated by support from the Commission on Preservation and Access. An earlier version of this essay was published in the Ohio Archivist 22 (Fall 1991): 3-7.
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