Hello back,
 
On a recent trip to Rochester, NY for a Preservation of Photographs Seminar
at the International Museum of Photography and Film I learned that they were
starting to put some of the collection on CD-Rom.  The main use for this was
to store and easily view many images quickly, and thus access the image
quickly as well.
 
My impression was that this new technology was looked upon as a nice new tool
but that the staff was particularly wary of placing too much emphasis on it.
 Several issues came up in our discussions which you might find helpful: 1) A
digital image is one (at least) generation removed from the original, in
terms of quality. and  2) The original photo(s) have inherent historical
value as artifacts in and of themselves based upon what their support is, the
process used, etc. etc., which cannot be found in a digital image.
 
And finally, (and, I think, a most interesting point) one person at the
seminar noted that while a number of companies are exclaiming the benefits of
this new technology that they have developed, and are encouraging
institutions to adopt/spend lots of money on this new technology, none of the
companies are willing to guarantee that 10, 20, 50, years from now the
machines needed to read these disks will still be produced.  Wow! What a long
confusing sentence.  But I think you get the point.
 
Anyway, I have some other material that I was given during the seminar but it
is at work so if you want more info let me know.
 
My home address:
Hiwheeler.aol.com
 
Work:
rllrsktmus.aol.com
 
Scott Addison Wilhite, Director/Curator
National Museum of Roller Skating