This means that a data disk can all too quickly turn into an in- Aside from the difficulties in deal- address this problem of not be-
formation black hole. “In the mid-1990s,” says Spiro, “librarians ing with the sheer quantity of ing able to find webpages that
became increasingly conscious that formats change so rapidly that information on the Internet and were there six months ago. And
today’s standard formats might be something entirely different in assessing quality, there is the other efforts are under way, both
two years. If people used, say, WordStar as their word processing problem of permanence. technical and organizational, to
application in the late 1980s, how can they open up those WordStar provide greater permanence and
files now? Some word processors may have that backwards compat- Unlike libraries, where researchers institutional resources, to help
ibility, but it can be a real headache.” could be reasonably sure that oth- produce more universal names
Transition paths are set up by companies, points out Tony Gorry, ers might have access to the same that are more stable than URLs,
the Friedkin Professor of Management, professor of computer science, materials in perpetuity, the Inter- and to improve institutional com-
and director of Rice’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learn- net is constantly in flux. “There’s mitments to preserve webpages.”
ing. “You have the 5.25" floppy, and they want to make a path for you always the frustration of that In reality, though, if the in-
to get to the 3.5" disk.” But he doesn’t see it as an issue that engages dreaded 404 error message that formation contained in the vast
a lot of business interests. “There is not much economic incentive to says the webpage you’re looking majority of websites is archived at
make easy conversion paths between old and new media,” he says. In for is gone,” says Spiro. all, it is archived only by the site’s
any case, how far back will such paths go? “Apple, for example, has an- Van Horn agrees that, regarding creators. As far as most of us are
nounced that it will no longer support Operating System 9,” Gorry research, the Internet’s imperma- concerned, if a URL displays a 404
says. “My guess is that a bunch of people will lose things unless they nence is a huge concern. “How error, the site and its contents have
keep their old Macintoshes around.” do you even reference something vanished as irrevocably as an old
Obviously, the leap from analog to digital is the single greatest hur- that’s online,” she says, “when, in magazine printed on pulp paper.
dle. After all, even if digital formats aren’t directly
compatible, software can be written to facilitate I gained a little insight into
conversion from one format to another. But this how people react psychologically
isn’t necessarily possible for the average person fac-
“A lot of webpages
to the constant mutation in me-
ing a whole new round of conversions every time
have no identify-
dia formats and impermanence
hardware or software changes. And things are cer-
ing information on
of information while I was talk-
tain to get more complex as formats continue to
them—they don't
ing to Werner Kelber. We were
proliferate. “The problem with speeding up the
say who created the
interrupted by a phone call from
process of communication and changing the ma-
page, when it was
the department coordinator, who
chines and formats is not just that things become
created, or who to
asked Kelber what type of disks
rapidly outdated,” says Kelber. “Information is in-
contact if there are
he had that he needed converted.
variably lost in the process.”
problems.”
Kelber has several boxes of old
s— hisha van horn
floppy disks that contain lectures,
In addition to generating a plethora of notes, talks, bibliographies, and
media formats that are fragile, vulnerable, and research, but his current com-
prone to obsolescence, the information age has puter doesn’t have a drive that
produced a whole new category of data sources that can read them. As he answers
are marked, at least as things stand, more by their the coordinator, the coincidence
unreliability and ephemeralness than by any other strikes him, and after he hangs
characteristics. These are, of course, websites. up, he notes how perfectly the
Quality always has been a problem for research-
six months, it may not be there at
call illustrates the pervasiveness of
ers citing sources. It used to be that researchers went to a library not
all. Is it enough to note the URL
this issue. “These are backups,”
just because information sources were housed there but because those
and date?”
he says, waving over the boxes of
sources had been professionally assessed and deemed acceptable in quality.
“The transitory nature of the
disks. “But what’s the meaning
Now, people often turn to the Internet, and while there is quantity galore,
Internet is a very serious prob-
of backup? What’s out in print is
the quality is much in debate.
lem,” Kelber says. “One may ar-
fine, but to suddenly be confront-
gue that the past is not important
ed with the fact that all this is now
“One effect of this barrage of information,” Gorry says, “is that it’s giving
and that it’s not a major issue if
obsolete is an idea I find impossi-
people an opportunity to be indifferent to proof. You get information from all
the information flow changes. But
ble to live with and reconcile with
sorts of sources, and everybody’s opinion is as good as everybody else’s.
I believe that an understanding
my ethos as an academician. You
There’s this cute cartoon of two dogs sitting in front of computers, and one
of the past is an essential part of
feel that your scholarly identity is
dog says to the other, ‘You know, the great thing about the Internet is that,
our civilization and identity, and
damaged because you can’t con-
when you’re on it, nobody knows you’re a dog.’”
if that process is increasingly un-
nect with your own scholarly past.
dermined, I have worries about
I desperately try to find ways of
Van Horn believes that the Internet has made us sloppy about re-
a civilization that lives, as some
making this material usable once
search. “Faculty members want their students to be very cognizant
people do, only on the surface of
again, but too often it’s a waste
of sources of information and to evaluate it and its appropriateness,”
the present.”
of time.”
she says, “and yet a lot of webpages have no identifying information
There are some individual and
“I think it’s difficult for most
on them—they don’t say who created the page, when it was created,
organized efforts to preserve
people,” van Horn says simply,
or who to contact if there are problems. How can you evaluate if it’s
what’s on the Internet. “For
and she is echoed by Spiro, who
useful or not if you can’t tell whether its creator is a knowledgeable
instance, the Internet Archives
says the typical reaction is confu-
specialist or a teenager putting things on a personal webpage? Also,
[http://archive.org] is trying to
sion and befuddlement. But Spiro
even though only a fraction of the past has been digitized, we have this
capture snapshots of the Web,”
also agrees with Gorry, who sees
bizarre sense that everything is on the Web, so if you do research there,
says Spiro, “in part to facilitate
an individual’s reaction as a matter
you have everything you need.”
historical research and in part to
of temperament. “The same pace
20 rice sallyport
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