Chapter 9 review – Change in Times

I know firsthand that formats change over time. VHS changed to DVD and nowadays that is slowly changing over to BlueRay. Something I never considered though is how such a transition would affect a libraries collections. Evans states that in audio technology alone there are seven transitions when one goes from vinyl records to modern and still forgoing online sources. The potential loss of whole collections is quite possible if the library does not keep up to date with the technologies.
Two good examples of these technologies are eight track cassettes and also audio cassettes. The eight track cassette tapes are almost four times the size of a audio cassette but they have two very different features. First is that they hold multiple tracks which one can jump to at any moment. The second is that they do not have to be rewound, the track is on a giant loop which moves from track to track to track. Yet they are not without drawbacks. Their size is a hindrance and since they have moving parts and a thin tape they wear quickly as well. There was a reason why the audio cassette soon replaced the eight track as a standard in audio for quite some time. Thus in just a few short years a collection of eight track cassettes would be rendered almost totally useless for the reason that the technology was now no longer available for people to listen to the tracks. There is a way around that fate though.
Collections do not need to be rendered completely obsolete with a little bit of planning. Providing the appropriate viewer or player for the user to use on site unlocks countless hours of use. Another potential option is to either A) purchase the collection under the newer format to allow for greater use or B) if copyright allows one might be able to transfer the collection onto another medium by themselves. Digitizing collections and works have been occurring around the country for some time now. I know for a fact how impressive some works can be. During my stay at Bucknell University I was part of such a project to help bring otherwise unknown works out into the open. Without the support and drive of countless individuals such projects rarely get can even even get off the ground. Certainly not when one has such a large scope. If anyone is curious I added the link to the collection which now is accessible to the world wide web.