Preservation of Information
The fact is that we librarians and archivists, and we alone, are responsible for something that everyone now takes for granted – that each generation will know more than the preceding generation because useful knowledge has been recorded and preserved and can be the basis for the creation of new knowledge (Gorman, 2003, p.112 ).
This statement by Gorman firmly places preservation of information as an important consideration if we are to
propose that a library could exist in a paperless form.
Storage
Storage and space are constant issues with print libraries, and are guilty of a large financial burden with buildings accounting for about a quarter of the total cost of most libraries (Arms, 2000, p.10). Libraries often ‘occupy expensive buildings on prime sites’ and ‘even when money is available, space for expansion is often hard to find in the centre of a busy city or on a university campus’ (Arms, 2000, p.10). Space-saving remedies such as off-site storage may ease pressure on the library building, but create extra issues and costs in access and retrieval.
The paperless, or digital, library proposes to solve this problem; ‘administrators have seen that the creation of a digital library or online archive enables the creation a new space even if the institution cannot buy any more physical space’ (Hughes, 2004, p.20). Pomerantz a sserts that hard drive of 800GB of capacity is a quantity of data equivalent to over eight thousand metres of shelved printed materials, and it is easy now to find an portable external hard drive of 1 terabyte, measuring only 114mm in length for under £70: not only is digital storage incredibly space saving, it is also becoming increasingly inexpensive (2007, p.509). Arms proposes that 'the costs of electronic storage [are] decreasing by at least 30 percent per annumn', leading to the assumption that digital libraries will increasingly become a viable alternative to their print counterparts in terms of both saving space and money (2000, p.10).
However, the cost of Digital Libraries does not equate directly to the cost of digital storage. The cost of small, in-house digitalisation schemes are predictably expensive with even The British Library previously choosing to only offer a ‘greatest hits’ of its collection (Hughes, 2004, p.9). While there are now many mass digitalisation projects underway, notably Google Books and The British Library (who have been able to commence large scale projects thanks to funding) (British Library, 2008), this still raises the question of how complete a digital collection can be. If some institutions have to make decisions over what to digitalise, and even a giant organisation like Google is predicting that it would take 300 years to ‘map all the world’s information and make it searchable’ (Schmidt cited by Mills, 2005), digital libraries will inevitably remain incomplete for the foreseeable future.
Preservation and Longevity
Another important consideration for physical versus digital storage is preservation. Hughes explains that ‘developing a digital surrogate of a rare or fragile original object can provide access to users while preventing the original from damage by handling or display’, presenting a good argument for digitalisation of rare of special collections (2004, p.11). However, these digital images require on-going preservation themselves, as hard ware technology needs upgrading or formats change. Consistency of formats over long periods needs to be encouraged, such as Adobe Systems’ attempts to position itself as archival standard for text formats (Pomerantz, 2007). There is also a requirement for the institution or company itself to be sustainable and have funding for the future, and current cuts to universities in the UK are an indication of the inability to predict the longevity of some digital repositories.
One possible answer to the fears of loss of information in the switch to purely digital collections is the adoption of national or international cooperation and schemes. One example of successful cooperation lies in the UK Research Reserve (or UKRR). Journals, or serials, have caused much debate recently, as libraries move towards an increasingly digital stock to avoid the costly storage of large back runs which often lay unused. The UKRR is a positive example of a national strategy that allows libraries to get funding for disposing of old periodicals in a controlled way that ensures three print copies are retained for national use (UKRR). This kind of systematic cooperation can ensure print copies are not completely lost, while allowing the majority of libraries to become print free in this area of their collection. This model could be rolled out for other resources to allow libraries to move from hybrid to paperless status.
