Dominique Rogers wrote:
>
> I work as a volunteer in a museum which is planning to store
> images of the collection on CD ROM. I am not a computer specialist and
> nobody is in the museum.  I have been looking at equipment and figured
> out that we need on top of what we have already, a) a scanner with
> transparencies attachment and that the HP seems to be what we need, and
> a CD ROM read write machine, and there is the problem: The HP is around
> 1000 and the Yamaha is around 2000 and I cannot figure out the
> difference and do not want to ask to dealers as I would like impartial
> opinions. Can anybody give me some advice or share their experience on
> this process, or tell me if it has been discussed before (I am sure it
> has!) how I can access the information.  Thank you in advance.
> Dominique Rogers
> [log in to unmask]

Ouch. Prices are quite a bit higher in the UK then in the 'States'.
Must be those big wall plugs you use. (;-o).

The HP SureStore CD Writer 4020i sells for about $980(US) The literature
claims a 74 minute recording time at 150Kb/sec. (consistent with the
660MB capacity) This uses the 650MB disks. These disks cost about
$10(US) making CD-ROM a pretty cheap optical medium to store on.


Now the obilgatory curmudgeonly warning. Storing images of documents on
an electronic media is not a substitute for good old low-acid paper and
permanent ink. It is a great distribution media, but not a great
archival tool. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're in my business)
electronic storage media are evolving at such a rate that 10 year old
media is often quite difficult to use today (have you seen a functional
8" floppy disk drive lately?- how about an in service IBM card punch?).

Electronic archival is not a media. It is a process of continually
moving information from one format to another over time. Today CD-ROM
is one of the most stable media. The data format on it may not be.

Just something to think on from the old curmudgeon.

--
Andrew J. L. Cary                     | I Reckon that the Opinions
Senior Curmudgeon                     | expressed here DO represent
Cary Consulting Services, Newark, CA  | those of the management of
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