Borje Justrell Director ICT department National Archives, Sweden 2005

1. The Digital Black HoleReflections on Costs for Long Term Storage of Digital Information. Based on an Article by Jonas Palm, Head of Department of Preservation Borje Justrell Director ICT department National Archives, Sweden 2005

2. “I’ve invented a machine which can answer all questions!”

3. …it knows all the answers but I can’t come up with the questions….

4. The digital black hole

5. SEK $ € DKK

6. € SEK YEN AUD GBP $ BTN

8. …the digital information may be lost for ever. It will be as secretly kept as anything captured by the Black Holes in space.

12. Life on the Web “Whichproject…?” Project up and running Termination PlanningFunding The Life Cycle of Digitization projects Survival of the fittest Initiatives - lots of energy The Good Ideas

13. Digitization project costs…1.The transfer to a digital format2. Preserving the digital informationand keeping it accessible

14. Some reflections… Born digital Should be stored digitally Analog audio and video magnetic tape Must be digitizedto survive Left in the digital domain until it “dies” Scanned material Stored digitally for future use Stored analog on film for future use

15. Storage demands for different kinds of information; for comparison - approx 1 minute of information

16. Comparison of costs for storing the same information on different media including the original on paper Harvard University Library, 2004

17. Comparison of costs for storing the same information on different media including the original on paper National Archives, Sweden 2005

18. Comparison of costs for storing the same information on different media including the original on paper National Archives and Harvard University Library USD

20. Storage Costs in HSM systemall costs in SEK

22. Distribution of costs for storage in HSM system at the National Archives, Sweden

25. …but the scanning…?What does that cost?

26. Distribution of scanning costs Costs based on production costs at the scanning facility MKC, National Archives, Sweden

27. Distribution of scanning costs Costs based on production costs at the scanning facility MKC, National Archives, Sweden

28. Digitizing costs for A/V as suggested in Swedish report covering 4,5 million hours on tape Total of 8,055Tb if digitized to CD- and DVD format 30% audio tapes = 1,350,000 h = 810Tb in CD-quality 70% videotapes = 3,150,000 h = 7,245Tb in DVD quality “Due to condition and technical circumstances transfer should be made within the next ten years” Facts from report published by The Ministry of Culture, Sweden, 2004, Bevara ljud och rörlig bild (SOU 2004:53)(Preserving sounds and images)

29. Digitizing costs for A/V (1 year) Facts from report published by The Ministry of Culture, Sweden, 2004, Bevara ljud och rörlig bild (SOU 2004:53)(Preserving sounds and images)

30. Scanning in Gb in Swedish scanning projects

31. Scanning costs compared

32. Swedish project will allow lesser quality digitization e.g. One person should be able run up to 12 taperecorders Transfer from analog to digital at double speed Facts from report published by The Ministry of Culture, Sweden, 2004, Bevara ljud och rörlig bild (SOU 2004:53)(Preserving sounds and images)

33. Huge investments in digitizing must be met with adequate arrangements for preserving the work done

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35. The Future

38. 2D bar code May store any kind of digital information on film - text, image, audio, video

39. 2D bar code 1 m of 16mm film can today store 30Mb

40. The Rosetta stone Hieroglyphs Demotic text (Egyptian text) Greek text With 2D bar code solution each film will begin with plain readable text on what the film contains and what is needed to access its information content.

41. Conclusions… …depends on your agenda...