Did you know that in the US National Archives f you laid end to end, the sheets of paper would circle the Earth over 57 times! Did you also know that, according to archives.gov, “in addition to all of this paper, they have:
- over 93,000 motion picture films;
- more than 5.5 million maps, charts, and architectural drawings;
- more than 207,000 sound and video recordings;
- more than 18 million aerial photographs;
- nearly 35 million still pictures and posters;
- and more than 3.5 billion electronic records.
and the volume grows at about 1.4 billion pages per year.”
And only a small percentage of it is available online in digital format. I recently read an article about The Philippines and how EMC, as part of their corporate social responsibility project donated an 18TB storage system and is in the process of digitizing all 40,000 hours of audio, 30,000 hours of tapes from its film archive, 6,500 photos, 28,000 photographic slides, and at least 56,000 manuscripts of literary works housed by the the Cultural Center of The Philippines (CCP).
Makes me wonder what percentage of the world’s history has been digitized? The US is working every day to digitize more and more content, but at 1.4 billion pages per year, the process has to be daunting and expensive. Perhaps, once the government decides to go completely digital, they will have the time to catch up. I don’t think it’s for a lack of trying, but for crying out loud, save us from the paper hell.
Top 5 Reasons to digitize everything:
1. Youth: Future generations will live almost exclusively digital. It’s happening already with Gen Y-ers.
2. Innovation: It’s all about Big Data. Imagine if we had access to an unlimited supply of data going back decades even centuries. Imagine what we could learn, create, solve.
3. Education: One way to ensure an appreciation for history, and enable future generations to learn and innovate based on history is to digitize it.
4. Culture: Anyone, anywhere in the world can learn about the history of another culture, and that builds a better understanding of each other.
5. Environment: Put some meat behind going paperless and eliminating waste.
Of course, if I had to add a 6th Reason (a selfish one no doubt)… Hard Drives: lots and lots of hard drives (and SSD & tape drives too).
Any more reasons you can think of?
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Image by: http://www.datasoftsolutions.net/
I agree going completely digital is a real good idea. However, there is nothing like receiving a hand written letter from someone with words of affection. Or written words of what they are doing. Sent in a card or just on paper. There is nothing that can replace the written words of a Love letter that you can read over and over again from your true love. I may be a hopeless romantic or old fashioned. I don’t see everyone going completely digital.
Marla Hice
@marla hice You know what Marla – you’re right! Your comment made me think of what would I rather receive from my kids: an e-card, or a handwritten note or drawing wishing me a happy birthday. No doubt, I’ll take analog over digital when it comes to stuff like that. Thanks for the clarity 🙂 – Mark
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