June 2004
Advisor’s Corner
Susie Chapman
Hi everyone! Welcome to springtime in the Rockies with snow one day and 80 degrees the next. It’s typical Colorado weather. Speaking of the weather, oh yeah, I’m supposed to be writing about Alchemy. HA!
IMR is gearing up for the 2004 Knowledge Share in Denver. They will be providing an introduction to the new Alchemy 8.0 along with other interesting information. Visit www.imrknowledgeshare.com for more information.
Sorting a Database – the easy way
We receive frequent calls and emails on the subject of sorting your files. It is very simple to sort files and folders inside of Alchemy Build. To begin, list your files in the viewer pane (right hand, upper pane in screen capture)…
Notice the files in the Viewer pane are in alphabetical order after clicking the column header. In order to save this configuration I have to select all the items in the viewer (Ctrl +A or Edit | Select All). Then left click and grab the items and drag and drop them on top of the database name. They will appear in the same order when you reopen the database.
You can do this with folders or items in the folders. Hope this helps simplify your Alchemy experience.
See you next month!
ALCHEMY TECH NOTE 2004-8
Alchemy Server error: The requested address is not valid in its context
Revision Date: May 12, 2004
Version: Premium 7.6
When opening a server-controlled database you see the following error:
Cause: This is due to the AUS file containing the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) for the Alchemy Server. FQDN’s are resolved using DNS. In certain circumstances the build station cannot query the appropriate DNS server to resolve this name.
Resolution: We’ve created an issue for this and engineering is looking at it.
There are however a couple of work-arounds for this:
- You will be able to open the databases with URL; this does limit the functionality of a build station.
- Edit the HOSTS file on all the client machines to map the FQDN of the Alchemy server to it’s IP address. This is only good as long as the IP address of the server does not change. If it changes, you’ll need to re-edit the HOSTS file.
Digital Documents - Issues in Preservation
Jessie Wilkins
“Digital documents last forever – or five years, whichever comes first”
- Jeff Rothenberg, RAND Corporation
The Domesday Book was written in 1086 to provide an accounting of the lands and people under the control of William the Conqueror. In 1984, the BBC began work on a project to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Book and make it accessible to schoolchildren throughout Britain. The project cost ₤2.5 million and used cutting-edge technology to breathe life into the Domesday Book. The finished project was stored on LV-ROM videodiscs and played using BBC Master microcomputers. However, by 2002 the LV-ROM readers had largely stopped working, with the result that the 16-year old Domesday Project was virtually inaccessible, while the 916-year old Book was still legible.
This example is by no means isolated. While paper can still be read hundreds of years later, digital documents are much more susceptible to damage and irretrievable loss. In this article, I will look at some of the reasons for this, including the number of sources of electronic information, the complexity of digital objects, and the sheer volume of information being created. I will also look at some of the problems with long-term digital preservation. Finally, I will discuss strategies for addressing those problems in the short- to intermediate-term.
The Problem with Digital
Digital objects present interesting problems that are not found with paper documents. In the first place, there are hundreds of unique file formats, many of them specific to a particular purpose, and almost all of them proprietary in the sense that they are not readily accessible without the specific application for which they are intended.
These file formats are often optimized for their intended application and increasingly lack an analog counterpart. For example, while a relational database could be printed, it would be difficult to convey the relational aspects from the printed page. Similarly, a spreadsheet with complex formulae could also be printed, but the paper would merely show numbers and not the calculations used to generate them. There are myriad other file formats that suffer similar limitations, including vector graphics, audio or speech files, animation, and email.
Many digital documents also include complex or compound information objects. For example, web pages can include everything from simple text and graphics to full motion video with audio – to page representations that are generated dynamically from a database for each individual user. Email messages may include attachments of arbitrary types. With email in particular, the metadata associated with the message – who sent it, when it was sent, and so forth – is a vital part of the electronic document.
Issues in Preservation
While paper documents can survive extended periods of benign neglect, digital documents are less robust and require active, ongoing maintenance. The first issue to consider is that of the media used to store the information. There are no archival-quality media today for storing electronic documents. Magnetic tapes may last 30-50 years in careful storage, but they are susceptible to data loss from exposure to magnetic or electrical fields. CDs and DVDs may last from as much as 75 years to as few as 5, depending on the quality of the media and the storage conditions.
Perhaps more important than the lifespan of the media, however, is the lifespan of the hardware required to read them. Look around your office – do you still have software on 3.5” floppy discs? What about 5.25” discs? 8” discs? In my home office I have software for the Commodore 64 home computer on cassette tapes. My Datassette player broke down in 1994, and it is quite difficult, though not impossible yet, to find replacement parts. It is also difficult to find a Commodore 64 to hook it to in order to read the software.
The hardware technology lifecycle today is around five years and getting shorter. Five years ago computers included a 3.5” floppy drive and a 5.25” floppy drive. Today CD readers are standard equipment and manufacturers are starting to include DVD readers on new PCs. In five years it may be difficult to find a CD reader, and it will be even more difficult to find a working floppy disc drive. And the rate of innovation is only increasing.
Even assuming the media is still readable, and you have access to a working reader, you still must have software capable of reading and understanding the information on the media. There are several compatibility issues that must be considered. The first is between applications. It is not uncommon for the modern organization to have electronic documents created in many different applications, from Microsoft Office to Corel WordPerfect to OfficeWriter and WordStar – or even older. Many of these applications can read documents created by other applications, but they may do so poorly. The second problem relates to documents created with the same application but on different platforms – for example, Microsoft Word for Windows and Word for Macintosh. The major vendors have been doing a better job of synchronizing applications across platforms, but some idiosyncrasies remain.
Perhaps the most important software compatibility issue lies with different versions of the same application. As new functionality is added or the file format is redesigned to be more flexible and robust, support for older versions is jettisoned. Periodically, then, these older formats must be converted to the new structure, which then makes them illegible to older applications. Each conversion increases the chances that something will get lost in the translation and the document corrupted.
Finally, let’s consider the authenticity of these electronic documents and how it affects preservation. One of the reasons paper documents have been favored over electronic documents is the idea of non-changeability and non-repudiation: a paper document is difficult to change without detection and bears the signature of someone so it cannot be repudiated. Electronic documents provide this capability as well, but different documents support different mechanisms for digitally signing documents – and some signature technologies are designed to ensure the document hasn’t been changed without regard for who actually signed it. Digital documents can also be encrypted and password-protected to keep them from prying eyes, but passwords are lost or forgotten quite regularly.
These mechanisms are generally software- and file format-specific, which brings us full circle to the dependency on particular software applications and versions.
Preservation Strategies
So what steps can you take to ensure access to your digital documents moving forward? There are a number of strategies for preserving electronic information, each with its own particular strengths and limitations.
The oldest strategy is to convert to analog – in other words, print or film the documents for permanent storage. This has the advantages of being time tested, readily available, and not subject to file format and media considerations: the documents are human readable. The problems with this approach comprise most of the reasons users are moving to electronic documents in the first place: rich media, simultaneous access to multiple users, dynamic or compound documents, the storage space and retrieval time required for analog media, and so on.
Digital media doesn’t last forever, and as we’ve discussed, neither does the hardware. Migration has to be part of any strategy for long-term access to electronic information, because the migration must take place while the hardware, software, and media are still readable. Migration may take the form of simply copying one CD to another, or it may involve moving the electronic documents from CD to DVD or the current generation of storage. A related conversion may be required to migrate the content of the documents from an obsolete or proprietary format to a more current one. Migration can be quite expensive and must be managed as an ongoing expense, not a one-time charge.
The “digital archeology” strategy involves storage of the operating system, the hardware, the software, and the media so that the original media can be read using the original system used to access it. In this scenario we still have to address media and hardware lifespan issues. This model also centralizes information into those locations that have the archived systems, which counters the prevailing trend towards decentralization of information access. But the most pressing problem with this approach is the sheer number of different configurations that would have to be stored in order to cover even the operating systems, storage systems, and applications available today. Add in obsolete systems and the rate of technological innovation and it quickly becomes unmanageable.
A related strategy that has enjoyed more success is emulation. In this model, the original software is run on today’s computers using a specialized program called an emulator. As the application or the software paradigm changes, the emulator can be updated to continue to access older applications.
The next strategy is to standardize on a specific format or small number of formats and to convert nonstandard formats to the specified ones. Preference should be given to standardized formats such as TIFF, JPEG, and ASCII, and then to ad hoc industry standards like PDF or Microsoft Office. This process can be labor-intensive and there is the potential for loss of data or functionality as the result of the conversion.
The last option I will discuss is the conversion of digital objects to formal descriptions. In this scenario the document contents and relevant metadata are captured and preserved. Today this is typically done using XML, which supports many different data types as well as metadata. This approach is not yet proven but shows significant promise in resolving application and file format compatibility issues.
So which approach is the right one? Most organizations should consider multiple approaches to long-term preservation. Migration and emulation are valid preservation strategies today, and conversion to formal description is gaining support. Consider the cost of each approach, both in terms of money and time, and more importantly, consider the cost of not preserving your electronic information.
Jesse Wilkins, CDIA+, EDP, LIT, ICP is a document industry expert and speaks frequently on digital preservation issues.
Alchemy Training:
Learn more about Alchemy Software products from IMR Certified Instructors. IMR's Educational Services team is pleased to offer 2 of our advanced technical Training Courses geographically near you. The courses being offered are designed to inspire innovative solutions utilizing all of the exciting new features and product extensions just released by IMR.
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