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I know this is last minute, but I was
wondering if anyone is already planning or would be interested in a session
related to Katrina and the recent hurricane season. We have been extremely
busy advising victims and restoring tapes from the areas hit; including the
Caribbean, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and
Texas.
We handle magnetic tape (audio,
video and data) so we would be interested in putting something together with
others handling film, removable discs or hard drives. It could be a fairly
straight-forward report on what has been done or it could be interesting to
compare the procedures and success rates in recovery between the different types
of media. We have been handling a large volume and variety of tape so we
can report on various effects on different tape formats but have only "hearsay"
information on some other mediums. For instance, some colleagues have reported
back that they have had a good deal of success with new "sealed" drives from
lap-tops but others have reported serious problems with drives from PC's and
removable drives. With people migrating collections, it could be useful to
present a report on how various mediums stand up to disasters. We have
contacts that have been working with hard drives but they would be less inclined
to put effort into such a report than if there is someone associated with
AMIA who is doing similar work.
It might also be interesting to compare the
effect and efficiency of disaster planning and recovery when there is a regional
disaster, such as Katrina, compared to a local disaster.
Finally, it would be interesting to hear
from organizations in the effected areas that had different types of media
damaged and what their experiences were. Even if no one does a session on
this, the information should be very helpful to the Preservation Committee in
the project to put together a publication dealing with disasters.
Is there interest in such a session- or is
one already planned? I would be willing to chair a session dealing with
disaster planning/recovery or offer assistance if someone already has one
planned ands would like some help.
Any comments or interest?
Peter Brothers |