permanence of electronics

[Una Smith]

JeF Veldkamp asked:

> Have you listened to your Edison wax records recently?

Leaving valuable information on obsolete media is like leaving your
books behind when you move to a new office.  I know someone who likes
to joke about throwing a lighted match into his office and closing
the door, but he would never actually do that.  Yet it is common for
us to "forget" to transfer our carefully archived datasets to more
current media or formats.  We all expect that when a library moves to
a new building, the books will go with it;  can't we expect virtual
libraries to maintain similar responsibilities?

        Una Smith