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Digitizing Automotive History — Part 2: How Historic Documents are Currently Preserved & Made Available
Most of the documentary materials that assist us in the history of the automobile are kept in paper, then stored in libraries, museums, and warehouses — or are even found in the hands of private collectors.
This ancient practice has some serious faults:
– Paper deteriorates (most modern paper has at best a 100-year life-span),
– Handling paper slowly damages it and contributes to its deterioration,
– Retrieval and reference is labor intensive (we’ll get back to this significant issue later), and
– Reference most often requires going to the location where it is stored or at best, paying to have a copy made and sent to you.
And . . . Where is it — who has it? Aside from the issue of knowing where materials might be, the chore of collecting, collating, and reviewing paper material is time consuming, labor intensive — and perhaps even impossible.
Cost, cost, and cost. The cost of paper records keeping has risen to the point that many organizations are closing their doors or limiting access — especially where the collections are large and significant.
