Abstract
Modern information technology creates opportunities for sharing information in ways never before imagined. Researchers are able to search vast databases in less time than it would take them to drive to a research library. Digital documents can be quickly sent to one or many destinations with the press of a key, but, this efficiency comes with a cost. As each generation of technology is replaced by the next at a dizzying pace, we may lose the technology needed to access many older documents. This process, technological obsolescence, may make many of these records unreadable to future generations (Rothenberg 1995:42). According to Rothenberg, action is needed now to ensure that we do not irretrievably lose access to many of our current digital documents. Conceptual models have been proposed for maintaining access to our digital heritage (Heminger and Robertson, 1998), yet it is not known to what extent organizations are aware of this problem and to what extent they may be making plans to address it. This study looked at a large organization that has embraced the use of digital document storage to learn both its awareness of the problem and the extent to which plans have been created to address it.
Recommended Citation
Heminger, Alan and Ireland, Jonathon, "Planning for Long Term Access to Digital Documents: An Initial Investigation" (1999). AMCIS 1999 Proceedings. 176.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis1999/176