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