One other comment I would make regarding the "intelligent" archivist is
that although I have some sense of the issues surrounding documentation
and preservation I don't really have the skills to extract and preserve
algorithms, so I might not qualify for the "intelligent" attribute. I
think the key here is not individuals working alone but partnerships of
people that bring the range of necessary skills to the digital
preservation table!
Rob Spindler, Head
Dept. of Archives and Manuscripts
Arizona State University Libraries, Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 9:50 AM
>
> Subject: Re: Emulato rs and Standards; Multimedia Policy
Manuals
>
> As the name implies, these are multiple media.
> New ones keep emerging, so standards keep changing.
> One enters the "plug-in" world where a work of art
> cannot be seen without some obscure new subroutine.
>
> But all god's chillun got algorithms.
> I keep thinking about "Music for Airports."
> Transcribers found a method to Eno's madness
> and scored for orchestra what had once been bits of tape.
> Of course, music, like math, makes the problem easier,
> but as Stewart says, "Let's solve the easy problems first."
>
> Consider music as an intelligent archivist challenge.
> One archivist goes off with a digitizer and reduces
> "Music for Airports" to bits of spectral sound. Another
> sits down, listens to the music and writes a score.
>
> Which goes into
> Dept. of Archives and Manuscripts
> Arizona State University Libraries, Rob?
>
> Which one satisfies the composer, Brian?
>
> Tom Ditto