Information Overload
Have we achieved information overload? This is not about being bombarded by social media, it is about the information we need to preserve. Take, for example, the US National Archives. In the 43 facilities, they house over 13.5 billion pieces of paper, enough film to circle the earth 3.4 times (over 85,000 miles or 136,794 km) and 837 terabytes of electronic records (about 33 billion records). All of this information is stored in 26 million cubic feet of space and grows at 1 million cubic feet or 28,000 cubic meters yearly (2023).
Other massive libraries exist worldwide, including the British Museum, which has 1 petabyte of digital information and over 463 miles (746km) of shelving. Other large libraries include the Shanghai Library in China and the Library and Archives of Canada, which houses millions of stored documents, books, and digital media.
Can we access what is needed reasonably? What about data obsolescence? There is no question that data formats will change and continue to change as is evidenced by the obsolescence of the jpg format. This must be a daunting task for any organization trying to keep their data readable and accessible. Data formats will change. It will be up to these institutions and our help to keep information accessible and useable in the near-distant future.
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“50 Facts about the British Library.” Accessed December 10, 2024. https://blogs.bl.uk/living-knowledge/2023/07/50-facts-about-the-british-library.html.
“JPG Is Dying. Check out These 4 Modern Successors | PCWorld.” Accessed December 11, 2024. https://www.pcworld.com/article/2466439/this-is-why-jpg-is-dying-and-these-are-its-successors.html.
National Archives. “National Archives by the Numbers,” September 26, 2022. https://www.archives.gov/about/info/national-archives-by-the-numbers.