We
think about librarianship being primarily about cataloguing and
inventory; knowing which books are in stock and exactly where they
all are. The profession itself regards its work as being about
precise service; matching what a customer wants exactly, down to the
best storage medium (book, D. V. D., etc.). My argument is that the
core of the profession is maintenance; ensuring that the information
you have is accurate and accessible. This profession should be
treated as mission-critical for any serious bureaucracy. My opinion
comes from both study and experience.
My
first post on this log mentioned how libraries are derived from the
name for “a place of papers”, typically as part of a mediæval
monastery or cathedral school. Imagine the hazardous conditions of
that time and place: mould from European rain in a room without
sealed windows; moths and other bugs; fire; theft; general entropy. A
large part of a librarian's time would have been taken up by
checking the condition of the 'papers', and ordering replacement
productions as needed. Even in classical times, the full contents of
a library were restricted, so controlling access has also been a core
function. Discretion of records was also historically necessary; with
all the effort and expense of producing new books, only knowledge
judged to be historically significant was preserved at all.
We've
talked about living and working in the information age for a long
time (~30 I'd say). We've all surely heard talk about “working
smarter, not harder”. I'd argue that attitude is especially
relevant in hot, dry climates like Australia. This has taken an added
impetus as the Chinese Communist Party last year amended its
fundamental doctrine, to say that data is now a factor of economics,
as important as land, labour, and capital. All this should mean that
managing information – and information literacy – are just as
important skills as managing people or machines. Even Australian
defence planning now talks about having “decision superiority”.
About
ten years ago, I worked in a business which had a revolutionary
service offering of a paperless office. Another part of their
revolution was doing away with a traditional I. T. department, in
favour of simply 'information'. Unfortunately, the revolution was
incomplete: the – now fully digital – mail room wasn't integrated
with the 'information' department, and neither was freedom of
information. Surely the change was made with the best intentions, but
with tragic results: this was also the job in which I discovered bit
rot.
A
large part of my day was downloading clients' case files onto a U. S.
B. and walking them to solicitors' offices. The only alternative –
used by everyone else – was to have someone print every page of
every file and carry them through the street. After pushing a trolley
full of paper through central Melbourne, complete with its wind and
rain, I realised that for all the talk about modernisation and
“working smarter, not harder”, this specific job hadn't changed
for at least 600 years. I jumped on board with the revolution of this
new business, until the day when a lawyer complained that I'd sent
them a corrupted file. After checking, I had to explain that there
was nothing we could do; the only (digital) copy of this file was
corrupted during upload. They shot the messenger soon afterwards.
The
experience gave me understanding to build upon this topic in my
Master's degree. Entropy is the enemy of librarianship and archiving;
we seek to maintain knowledge forever, but the physical medium for
storing information will constantly decay. Whether it be paper and
leather, the metal of a hard drive, the human brain, celluloid film,
or even tablets literally carved in stone, we are always in a race
against time. The bits rot as surely as a log. We keep seeking
technology which is more permanent in storage, easy to secure, easy
to maintain, and doesn't corrode anything around it.
With
knowledge, experience and understanding of bit rot, I've come around
to a few realisations. I now understand why any organisation of
sufficient size will periodically update/upgrade/refresh its storage
media: One way to guard against bit rot is to always have the bits
stored on factory-fresh hardware. I now also appreciate why
professions heavy on media – like law, academia, or government –
have the critical information in both 'hard' and 'soft' copies, if
only in case of emergencies. I would also like to experiment more
with printing on plastic or rubber. After all, at the rate of
decomposition and difficulty of recycling, plastic will endure
practically for ever.
Furthermore
I maintain that librarians and archivists as information managers
should be natural candidates for risk management. Keeping information
resources safe and clean are essential elements of the profession.
Maintaining information resources, including backup and recovery, are
vital to any white-collar organisation operating at scale.
