Family Search en duurzaamheid

Naar aanleiding van allerlei WieWasWie-perikelen waar ik ook opeens een mening over moest hebben en de opmerkingen van het Zeeuws Archief, heb ik deze week het "bezoekverslag" van de Long Now-foundation aan de Mormon Vaults gelezen. De Mormonen bewaren alle microfilms, hun "genealogische back-up," in een bunker in de graniet-bergen in Utah.

Een paar citaten:

The largest contaminate of their microfilm we were told was in fact blue jean lint brought in by the workers :) They use microfilm mainly because there is not a longer lasting digital equivalent. However they are digitizing their holdings and collecting more and more digitally for dissemination.

Past that point we stepped through double doors, and a large bank vault style door, into one of the 750 foot long tunnels going back into the archives. These are all connected by lateral tunnels holding impossibly long rows of skinny microfilm drawers. The infinite repetition and forced perspective reminded me of the “we need lots of guns” scene from the matrix. Each drawer is numbered with a simple set of digits, the film number, given in order of collection. Stewart asked how it was indexed… “in an Oracle database” said the lead archivist. “I wonder if they will be around in 950 years,” I said.

Die laatste zin zou er op kunnen duiden dat de opmerkingen van het Zeeuws Archief over de duurzaamheid wel eens terecht zouden kunnen zijn.
En tenslotte, bouwen in graniet heeft zo zijn nadelen

The real highlight of the tour was the reservoir. In the deepest tunnel, through a door, was the only part of the facility where you could see exposed rock. A small cement wall is built up here to trap the water dripping from the micro cracks in the rock above. The narrow long hallway filled with water from a slow drip reminded me of the Fremen water caches of Frank Herbert’s Dune. They gave us a cup of the water, tasty.