Introduction
Current technological advances and the Internet extend the traditional contact between library and user. Interaction now
includes e-mail, personal searching of catalogues, electronic document delivery and viewing of documents. Such developments
raise the inseparable issues of access to botanical literature and its preservation and conservation. Custodians of scientific
literature that is often hundreds of years old must realise its fragility, relatively temporary nature and importance as a resource
for research. Has the time now come to preserve and disseminate botanical information by electronic means? That is perhaps
an irreversible step, yet one being driven by scientific expectation, need and development. The implications are discussed in the
context of a major international research library.
Imagine for a moment the need to select information to take away from Earth if we were evacuating the planet, to go to a new
home. Yes, it is a farfetched concept, appealing to the science fiction enthusiasts among us, but in these days of asteroid impact
threat studies, it would serve us well to dream constructively about safeguarding our total resources of knowledge. What would
we take, if it were possible? What would you, as botanists, want to take personally from the ideal botanical library? Put another
way, what would we need to take to save the absolute core understanding of botanical research up to the time of leaving? Well,
I will leave you all to dream seriously later on, but my scenario serves a purpose. You have heard how we must today all take
care of the heritage we are using and creating for the future. We must also take responsibility for the care and maintenance of
the books and other documents in our botanical libraries. As a librarian, I can only endorse that and repeat the message, whilst
trying to follow best practise myself. Even that is sometimes difficult and not all in my profession would always be able to agree
on what we mean by it.
Everyday preservation - the example of photocopying
Whenever I pass a photocopier at my place of work, I always look to see if someone is using it. If they are, I ask myself if one
of the library books is being copied and is it being done satisfactorily? I am in charge of a collection of some 40,000 books and
I sometimes see the worst things being done to these important items. I try to educate users of our Library into how best to use
the stock in the safest and most acceptable manner, for whatever their needs. The same scenario takes place in probably a
hundred other similar institutions, including those of many of the delegates attending this session. Just think though, what
happens when I do not see copying take place, when I am away, when someone needs something urgently?
The message I would like to impress on you to take back to all of your colleagues and places of work, even to your own
library staff, is to look after the books, periodicals, maps and everything you may have use of in your libraries. The material
wears out, it will not last forever and it is probably irreplaceable. Think about what you need, where the information will come
from and in what form you need that information. Does it really have to be a photocopy? Do you and your colleagues need to
keep handling the same stock over and over again? Would anything be suitable to give a preservation priority?
I offer you a real example of what I mean. I recently had a request from the southern hemisphere, for an old and obscure Italian
botanical paper. Our library, being historically rich in journals, had the required item on the shelves, itself something not very
many botanical libraries could offer. When I came to see if I could photocopy the required article, which was quite long, I
realised the paper was ageing badly, it was light brown and had crumbling edges. It had that acidic, musty smell always
associated with paper decay. I could only just manage to copy the whole paper, even with very great care. We use a
photocopier which has a cut-away edge which allows whole pages to be copied right into the centre of the spine and is
sympathetic to fragile items, but even so, a few small fragments of paper were lost in the copying process. You could suggest I
should not have attempted copying. I put it to you in my defence, that here was a rare document being needed for use by
someone who could not otherwise obtain it easily, if at all. The journal has very rarely been used and is usually just sitting on a
shelf, rotting. Yes, I use that word literally. All of the paper you use and on which the information you read is printed is
decaying and has a varied life expectancy. At least I can now say that a useable second copy of that paper now exists
somewhere else and is being given scientific scrutiny again. But only just, for if our volume had been too far decayed, could the
enquirer have obtained the information needed anywhere else?
What can I offer you as a result of this short story? Well, I would like to have been able to digitise the document. It was out of
copyright and would have benefited from being stored as an image file, with some image enhancement perhaps, to overcome
the darkening caused by the acidic decay of its paper. Such an act would of course help, thereby making the article readily
available for others to use as well. But should enhancement or other alteration to the document's appearance be acceptable
practise? These are perhaps two of the key elements of the digital argument in a library setting. If a legitimately made file exists,
it can be rapidly made available for use many times over, assuming it is catalogued and easily retrievable and safeguarded by a
recognised provider. If it is backed-up and preserved in the best practise of digital data management, its future is long-term.
But this is not to suggest that we forget and discard the original document that has been digitised. No. Librarians must insist that
the traditional practices of preservation of original material, manuscript, artistic or printed, must continue.
Old formats and new formats
Librarians are responding to the new technologies by reorganising their staff and reader facilities, taking on new skills and
providing IT training, as well as bringing in new IT specialists to set up and run networks. There is an opportunity to attract new
funding as new resource demands are created in the IT areas. Librarians are using the new web tools and resources available to
seek information sources, book suppliers, e-journals and a multitude of other sites to assist in enquiry answering, something
which can provide a surprisingly fresh approach to a regular task. There is recognition that in this new working environment,
both staff and users will still occasionally need guiding and coaxing through use of the new systems, services and inevitable
technical problems. It is worth remembering that electronic documents can be supplied or accessed by using traditional
acquisitions policies. They may add to printed materials and, or, substitute for them. Should additional forms of the same
document be acquired? Only local circumstances and policies can determine this. Things are moving forwards sometimes very
rapidly, whilst in the wake of such progressive developments, there is the slower current of reasoned adaptation and
acceptance of the new technologies as they are tried out, tested and applied.
At The Natural History Museum in London, we do all of this and have an additional obligation to consider. This is to preserve
such items indefinitely. This has to be done in an order of priorities and is heavily dependent upon financial resources, the skills
of binders and conservators and the selection of items for conservation by the library staff, who themselves must be fully aware
of such matters. Training our staff in this area is not forgotten either, as with diminishing resources, such skills may be reduced
and awareness of preservation issues neglected.
To help us more generally, it is worth looking at the recently issued International Federation of Library Associations document
entitled Principles for the care and handling of library material, which is the first part of their series International
Preservation Issues, issued in 1998. Incidentally, the work itself is printed on permanent paper to ISO 9706:1994, which
covers the permanency of paper for documents. If you ask your library staff to ensure this work is available, we can all begin to
apply some quite basic steps towards preserving the botanical heritage we currently enjoy use of. Without this, we may find that
very soon, many items you take for granted today and use regularly may become unavailable or are put on restricted access.
Think more often of your books and journals as being irreplaceable, to help look after them, as it is not just you who uses them
but those who come after you and probably those who came before you, also.
I would add that different types of material often need different storage conditions, as my colleagues will have mentioned.
Ideally, this means when items are in use too, so please keep literature out of the sunlight if possible and handle with care! The
same applies to digital media. Floppy discs, CD-ROMS and tapes, as well as other formats, all need to be kept away from
heat, which decays the substrate on which the data is carried.
Tapes
For example, if you look at old reel-to-reel audio recording tape, perhaps only twenty years old, the cheaper brands often
display the dreadful feature of their metal oxide peeling away from the plastic tape on which it was laid down. That is data
falling off its carrier! It is irretrievable, just like a failed disc today. The Commission on Preservation and Access has
demonstrated tape life expectancy to be only a few tens of years (10 - 30), which I can personally concur with on the basis of
old tapes seen, but it will vary with the original manufacturer and quality of tape.
I would also add that my experience is with analogue sound recordings, so whether we are able to extrapolate the same lifetime
to digital recordings of any type, I am uncertain. DAT tapes, for instance, use a spinning head, helical recording system rather
like that of a video recorder, so there may be much greater wear on the tape at every pass, in comparison to a fixed head
system of an analogue sound recorder. Much the same can be inferred for video tapes and cassette tapes in their various
formats. There is also perhaps a risk of imprinting, again something I have experienced with audio tapes, where magnetic effects
cause layers of tape on a spool to pick up information from each other, like a shadow, the sounds mixing together on playback.
Can this happen to digital information on tape?
Compact discs
Neither I nor anyone else can say for certain how long any compact disc will last, either. Studies done by university researchers
in the USA suggest less than fifty years. This will depend on whether the disc is in use or just safely stored but it is constantly
vulnerable. Ultimately, the users are the biggest threat to disc safety whilst in use, so it may be necessary to have duplicate
copies of some data for daily regular use, perhaps in other formats as well, and a master copy or more in safe proper storage
elsewhere.
I would like to summarise some key points, as offered by Kodak to consumers, which are both relevant to data storage and
add to our understanding of the CD itself. Writable CDs use a layer of organic dye to store data, which itself follows a spiral
track moulded into the polycarbonate disc for the laser to follow. The laser burns and darkens sections to mimic the
microscopic pits which a read only CD uses as its data store. This layer of dye is backed by a gold layer, to reflect the reading
laser. A conventional read-only compact disc has an aluminium-chromium layer and no dye. Note that a disc is written and
read from underneath, so its surface is particularly vulnerable to damage. A writable disc is more susceptible to damage than a
CD-ROM, particularly before being written on by the laser, because scratches, fingerprints and other blemishes might diffuse
the more powerful writing laser beam, causing it to incompletely burn the dye layer and so lose data.
So what are best handling procedures? Good storage containers, such as the jewel cases in which many are originally
packaged, are the first essential. They are durable and give physical protection. Only handle discs by their edges and protect
them as much as possible from light, dust and environment changes. Severe flexing of the disc during handling is discouraged, as
this can distort the data-carrying layers within. Similarly, do not press things into their surfaces, such as a ball-point pen while
writing, as this will cause the same effect. Do not try to clean CDs with solvents and do not put labels onto discs, as this can
unbalance them in the reading equipment, making them unreadable. If a label has been applied, do not peel it off, as this may
cause delamination of the disc. Beware of writing on CDs with marker pens containing solvents. If you need to clean a disc, use
a non-abrasive tissue or soft cloth and rub from the centre outwards, in a straight line, to prevent scratches forming, which the
laser may follow and try to read.
A disc's life is over when it cannot be read, which when it happens suggests to the user that either the disc and/or the reading
equipment has failed. Remember also that such discs are read by software routinely handling errors in the data stream, so errors
are usually present in the discs and normally overcome. Deterioration will just increase the number of errors to be read and at
some point, those become too much for the software to handle. The disc then fails. It is worth considering that the early CDs of
the 1980's may be less durable than modern ones, as the metal coatings used on them were variable in quality. If a disc appears
semi-transparent when held up to the light or if it shows pin holes in the metal layer, it may be prone to oxidation and failure.
Are writeable discs stable and permanent data storage devices? Some, if left in bright light, will have their chemistry altered,
which means data can be lost through loss of contrast during playback. Prevention is increased if discs are stored in their
standard caddies or opaque containers out of direct sunlight. Recommended storage is a cool and dry environment.
Interestingly, it is not recommended to freeze CDs to promote their longevity. Storage at 25 degrees Celsius and 40 percent
humidity is expected to give a disc life of about 200 years. This is a useful measure of permanence in the context of our
considering paper preservation. Obviously, even if such a time elapsed, the question of the data being readable is
unanswerable. Whether equipment to read it will then exist is unknown. Two hundred years ago, electricity was only just being
discovered! There are still no recommended international standards for disc storage, so the advice given here is clearly a form
of best currently accepted practice. Do we still think the botanical library can be digitised? I recommend you might look at the
COOL (Conservation On Line) website for further information and background to all aspects of preservation as mentioned
here today.
Need for funding support
Perhaps it is becoming imperative that funding be increased to libraries and specially allocated from within botanical research, to
assist in the preservation of the very literature and documents which botany uses. I cannot help but notice that researchers bid
for research funding, yet when they receive it, nothing is specifically allocated towards the libraries those persons will use. Why
cannot a percentage or lump sum of any grant be earmarked for literature support? Such a move could radically change the
often daunting tasks of preservation, conservation, curation and digitisation in libraries. It would promote, assist and even
enable research work. If this sounds a radical proposition, I have actually put this point to researchers in receipt of grants and
they have agreed with my view, but cannot see a mechanism to achieve such aims.
My point is one of saying libraries need research-quality funding if they are to be used as a part of the research process. They
are inseparable from it. Books and journals cost an extraordinary amount in many cases. We had an example of three
historically significant, folio, colour-printed volumes generously donated to our library a few years ago. If we had purchased
them, they would have cost us about six thousand pounds sterling, or nine thousand dollars. That would be beyond our normal
budget, so they probably would never have been acquired. But here is another avenue for support, that of donations to enrich
research collections from the funds and goodwill of corporate or individual sources, because they recognise the long-term
worth of such an action. Yes, libraries everywhere still seek and recognise benefactors, to add to their shelves something which
money alone can never buy.
An ever-growing information resource
We have amassed a collection of botanical information so large and diverse, so ever-expanding, that already no one library
holds it all. All of you in the audience, even as users of botanical information, never see this entire resource. I do not, despite
being a botanical librarian in one of the world's most important collections of botanical information. It is just simply such a large
and diverse resource that it has spread beyond a single, simple discipline of research. As our knowledge has broadened and at
the same time become more and more specific, so has the literature increased. Today, interdisciplinary studies cause an even
wider resource to be required to feed botanical enquiry, and that is too much to find in one location.
It is not on the Internet, either. Our needs for information extend beyond the "home" research library to the key national and
international libraries. Then there are our personal research contacts, which sometimes supply information, and also the
anonymous area of inter-library loans for those requests for photocopies. Have you ever thought of where they all come from?
Finally perhaps, we may need to go to the special sources, which have to be personally viewed because of their uniqueness,
fragility or obscurity. Does it necessarily follow that because a title is not on your library shelves you do not need it? What if you
do not know of it or if it is in a language you cannot read or speak? If a title is the most critical work for your topic of research,
should not a library somewhere stock it so that you either come across it by serendipity or through the citation or
recommendation of others who have seen it? I leave you to form your own conclusions. It is no good referring people back to
literature dating from 1850, for instance, if they cannot access that same material, or its substitute, whatever its scientific
necessity, merit or worth.
No book, no more research. It is as simple as that. The whole process crumbles together with the decaying paper, which
someone wanted you to read. Such facts strongly suggest that the time has come where electronic tools can enable us to offer
new means of preservation of the information contained within printed documents. Subject to copyright considerations, this will
allow provision of substitutes for rare, fragile or otherwise unavailable items.
As you can see, librarianship has quite a task facing it, which although similar to other preservation activities in many other
disciplines, has special obligations because it cares for the evidence of intellectual studies, in our case, the study of botany.
Consider the growing problem of retrieval of information from digital resources. How do you index them? How do you cope
with millions of documents available globally, and how do you search them? Are databases such as Biosis going to be adequate
for the future? This consideration is just part of the librarians' task ahead.
Digitisation et the natural history museum
So, what is the Botany Library of The Natural History Museum in London doing in the realms of digitisation? Does it offer any
clues to the content of the digital botanical library? I can report that we are approaching the matter with care, fully aware of the
many pitfalls and the need to have a powerful Information Technology (IT) facility in place to support our needs for research
purposes. In our libraries, we have carried out several experiments in digital image capture. We have access to the Internet and
the many databases available through that, some free of cost, others by subscription, which may be made available to staff.
Then there is also a developing area of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) use, which has so far only been used by our
scientists. In the future, it might well become available to our local readers and to external users, as an extension to the botanical
literature. This would involve linking places, specimens, geography, literature citations or digital images and text as well as the
Internet and even a chronological dimension into one live package. Matters relating to free access or perhaps chargeable
access to certain levels of data will have to be considered against a background of copyright issues, growing orientation
towards freedom of information and research areas with sensitive data, perhaps in process. Increasingly we see much of our
data as digital objects and so need to develop a networked environment to handle them together with the outside world's
resources in parallel.
The development of Dublin Core standards for the cataloguing and description of digital objects and the use of SGML, DOI,
XML and other possible protocols are under discussion at the international level. The Natural History Museum is involved in
that work as part of our desire to make our collection information available. In 1996 there was the "Preserving Digital
Information" report by the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, commissioned by the Research Libraries Group and
the Commission on Preservation and Access. This mentioned the "fragility of cultural memory", which I rather like as a phrase.
The CPA is based at Stanford and encourages collaboration among libraries and related organisations to ensure the
preservation of the documentary records in all formats to give "enduring access to scholarly information." The more people that
understand these issues, the more support we will get to do what has to be done.
At The Natural History Museum, we are also hoping to digitise more colour transparencies of our artwork for archival backup
and quick visual reference access by readers, as well as for wider internal use of these materials. This work involves the use of
scanners, and I would just point out here the necessity to make sure transparencies are dust free before scanning. It may seem
obvious, but can easily be overlooked and then leave you with corrupted data, digital dust! Also consider the need to have a
scale against original materials being scanned or photographed, and perhaps also a standard colour patch, for colour balance
reference.
Our thriving Picture Library will make further use of images, as they become available in what will be a slow rolling programme
of discovery. All of this could be done in any botanical library with a basic current range of resources and capabilities, but again
it is necessary to consider the position of those not in such a well-off position. That needs to be given special consideration on a
case-by-case basis and could well even depend on the availability of electricity, rather than technological hardware. There is
also the issue of local staff skill levels to consider. I am trying to think in a global context here, as it is too easy to look at such
matters from my own library's position in the European context. Europe needs to adopt and follow policies to enable a strategy
of digital and traditional conservation for the preservation of information, to support the scholarship and research of the future.
The networked library
Of course, we use e-mail constantly, but not exclusively. Many of our clients do not have such systems, and some who do, still
prefer to send us a letter, a fact borne out in a recent survey in England by a commercial postage company who surveyed
customers. Letters are still seen as a reliable means of communication. However, we could not do without e-mail in our libraries
and it has certainly assisted international collaboration, co-operation and communications, demolishing the old problems of time
zones. We use it for Inter-Library Loans and extend that into use of services such as those offered by the British Library and its
ARTTEL service, which we still essentially need from time to time. We also use BIDS, an academic subscription service from
Bath University and some free services through the Internet, such as CARL. There are also image databases, such as Flora
Danica online and other local floras, even some books entirely digitised. We have networked key CD-ROM databases
internally so that staff have access in the libraries together with other gateway services, which we intend to evaluate and make
available in a structured manner through a library and university consortium currently under development. Internet facilities
require constant review and quality assessment of current information provided. We use the OCLC services for cataloguing
incoming literature more easily and we can check information and bibliographic data through other library catalogues around the
world with relative ease.
There is a barrier to cross when non-English language sites are used. This is another important issue in the preservation of data.
Can we understand it sufficiently to warrant preservation in our own country? Would it be best served by being kept in its
country of origin instead and then accessed remotely when needed? Where should resources be aimed to enable such a means
of sensible data storage? Hopefully, all foreign text characters will eventually be handled by Unicode or similar software.
I was involved in a pilot scheme using a commercial searchable image database, customised to our needs but in a rather too
experimental support environment. Lessons learned include the essentials of having interconnected machines, both desktop PCs
and servers at all workstations involved in the project. Internet, as well as e-mail functions on each machine proved invaluable,
particularly when we started to move large images, say of more than one megabyte, around our network. Yes, we had to check
to see that it could cope with the occasional high traffic density thus caused. We also learned that if you have to master
CD-ROMs, it should be done internally if at all possible, but if you must use external resources, make sure they know what you
require as a finished product. We lost much time in having CDs mastered to inappropriate colour standards at a time when we
were unable to detect the deficiency. However, we learn from early problems and accept that sometimes if you are taking a
lead in experimental curation, things may not work out. Technical support was another essential need in terms of our
customised software, which unfortunately did not meet our eventual requirements.
One other critical matter is that of constantly having to upgrade equipment to meet expectation and the needs of a project.
Throughout, we have upgraded PCs on a cyclic basis but at the moment, with new processors becoming very much more
powerful, our minimum standards for PC specifications have become top-of-the-range, if compared to the domestic market.
This is likely to rapidly need higher specification as the newly developed 600 MHz chips become available. There are
knock-on effects to also consider, such as display screen size being too small and unsuitable for viewing purposes.
We have a small range of botanical CD-ROMs and floppy discs of various kinds and in several languages, some multimedia.
This includes medicinal plant encyclopaedias, interactive plant identification keys, and databases such as the Index Kewensis
and the Plant Finder. We intend to collect whatever discs are relevant to our collections policy. Through careful storage and
handling, these should last for as long as is necessary, but much will depend upon technological changes as to when they
become obsolete and when they are no longer of use. That, I think, is the more difficult issue to handle in terms of indefinite
preservation.
I currently need to review the condition and usability of the old 5 1/4 inch floppy discs, some of which are beginning to be
unreliable in use. We have very few remaining machines which can read them, so I will need to check on our ability to
legitimately copy their contents to other formats and somehow record the curation activity, if doing so. Whether CDs are a
back-up option, I cannot yet say, but you will see that a reader still potentially needs access to the data, even if it is outmoded
and obsolete, if we are to offer a historical perspective for eventual research into machine-readable botanical resources. There
are old software packages too, which fall into this same category. Can they still be run and used for their once intended
purpose, even today, let alone the future? My conversation with a botanist earlier this week suggested such data is at risk, as
packages change. Their output may possibly vary between versions. So, do we decide to save obsolete tools and data, which
would require us to provide a means of reading or otherwise interacting with it? By comparison, we do keep obsolete books to
create what is the historical record of botany.
One other major development at The Natural History Museum in London, recently achieved, has been the creation of an
Internet-accessible searchable image database to support our commercial Picture Library. That uses botanical library and other
natural history images to generate some income for our institution. In addition, it provides to our readers a means of browsing
and searching of images, supplementing our extensive collections of colour transparencies. We have over 40,000 artworks in
our botanical library collections alone, yet relatively few have so far been photographed. Any substitute images can take
pressure off the original materials, at least in theory, until the originals have to be consulted for genuine reasons, as opposed to
casual browsing for enjoyment. This is likely to be the same at best, in many other botanical libraries. We have a long way to go
and I do not yet see a replacement for photography of the unique artworks of immense scientific, historical, cultural and artistic
importance.
Consider also the matters of image resolution, the inevitable approximate likeness to an original image of any scanned or other
digital image, plus the numerous difficulties in recreating true colour on a screen and then again on a colour printer. There are
many specialised technical issues to cover here. However, I do see the use of a digital camera soon becoming very desirable in
making a short cut to getting good quality images into a database, without the need for complex and laborious photographic
processes. Our Botany Department has already used a very sophisticated digital camera to digitise unique specimens from the
collections of Sir Hans Sloane, the nucleus historical material from the old British Museum, our founding body, dating from the
seventeenth century. Some of this data is now available through the Internet, yet the master files are very large and only
accessible internally for reproduction process requirements in reality. Perhaps soon, large files will be more the norm for daily
use. Generally though, how we treat all such data internally, particularly from an Archives point of view, is still to be decided
and we need to give it much careful and critical assessment. It would be correct to state, I believe, that once anyone begins to
use computers, you are forever tied to that medium of digital data although it may sometimes only be used passively with
traditional materials, such as books!
Data security
At this point I must not forget the fact that we have an on-line library catalogue and other databases. All of these need their data
protected and secured for the future, even whilst new data is being added. We found a change of library management system
two years ago caused some difficulties in terms of migrating data into the new system, so had to agree to cut out some data
which was going to become irretrievable in the new system. That meant it had to be preserved in a common access format and
we eventually transferred it to CD-ROM as plain text files. This is no doubt not going to be the last such episode in the
developing history of our use of electronic information, and highlights again the precarious nature of such ephemeral data.
I would like to put a question to all of you as an issue of great importance now. Can you read today all of your data files? Have
you backed them up, checked and verified their integrity and have you made master archival copies, which are then kept in a
fireproof safe or other secure and safe place? Do you have a policy for such things and if not, should you? Who actually owns
your data and who is responsible for its safe keeping? Do you check it occasionally for security, validity and integrity? If you
have important project work, you may have to consider these things and more, to safeguard the investment in the data for the
immediate and long-term future. It is easy to perhaps stray into the more technical IT areas here, which I do not wish to do.
I hope I have highlighted issues which are meaningful to all of us and which may cause us to reflect more on what we do with
our data and ask ourselves why we are prone to ignoring matters such as its safety. How long will it need to be available and
who are its intended users? As our posters earlier this week featured the vulnerability of digital data, I feel it is obligatory for us
all to experience at least once the failed disc and the salutary reminder of data becoming irretrievable. It happened to me once,
when in an instant, my entire hard disc content was lost. We never established how that happened. It could be you next time, so
please remember, unlike a lost book which is probably replaceable in some format, your personal information is probably
unique and ought to be kept as at least two copies, safely and securely, if you value it.
Considering the library as a resource provider, our readers will gradually become more familiar with information presented to
them on a screen and at some point even become demanding for such a presentation. Indeed, as librarians, we hope to offer
our staff increasing desk top delivery options for inter-library loan materials, our own stock and internal information to assist
communication. We see a time when our rare and special books will be presented to them and our readers through the
catalogue, as complete works available at the reader's demand but also, perhaps, with restrictions or limitations on how they
may use print-out or downloaded segments.
I do see an increasing perception that students are using cut-and-paste techniques to create "original" documents for course
work and share with you concerns for the future if this happens too much, without due regard for the content of botanical
documents. I could say the same for all of our natural history material or all other disciplines. There are some alarm bells
already ringing and I do not hear them as just a signal of the old and traditional ways being taken over by the new and
fashionable easy ways out. I suggest the often referred to information explosion of the late sixties and seventies really has
happened again and shows no sign of diminishing. However, it has begun to shift into the virtual reality world of the Internet,
where it is still relatively new and untamed, largely unvetted and just becoming peer-reviewed. I do not see this ever stopping
and I welcome the challenge of something, which one of my colleagues very early on and quite rightly, referred to as a
revolution even greater than the invention of printing.
The virtual ideal
If I could see the collections in my care put into that virtual world tomorrow I would be delighted, to say the least. Yet we
would still be left with the materials from which all of the digital data was created. We are still expected to keep that indefinitely
within our Museum today, no matter what we digitise. I would not professionally wish to see otherwise. Someone has to keep
the original source materials, which as the other speakers have today already pointed out and covered admirably, needs
resources and specialist skills. We now suggest it needs to be done in a globally co-ordinated scheme and sooner rather than
later. However, if we want digitisation, consider the multiple standards of file formats in use today and what they might become
tomorrow. How do you view data if you do not have the right software to read it in, or, for that matter, if your machine is
incapable of running the package? The upgrading issue strikes again! Keeping pace with change that drives everything onwards
is essential and of course, feeds the ever-hungry commercial sector. That is something which we sometimes do not give enough
credit to, nor bother to communicate with, to make known the researcher's needs in software and hardware development.
Where would we be today if computers had not been developed to the level we are so familiar with? Wherever we would be, I
can say with absolute certainty, our conservation and preservation issues would be just the same. We would still be faced with
the enormous task of trying to preserve our botanical information resources and reserves. We will continue to be, whatever
happens.
I must cover the basics of this ideal. It will need considerable financial, staffing, equipment, managerial resources and skills to
achieve. Converting paper-based information into digital data will always require this and it must not be overlooked. We face
rising user expectations, already high and slowly rising in some botanical areas, but we librarians must and cannot overlook the
critical aspects of copyright and intellectual property rights issues. We are responsible for ensuring the proper and responsible
use of library stock and data made available within the library. International boundaries and the variations in copyright law
between them are still issues to be resolved. Current legislation in Europe and the USA and proposals to update copyright laws
are starting to address the realm of the digital Internet world and the concept of fair use.
Most excitingly, on-line access to databases and documents and the capabilities of desk-top delivery means that remote places
can potentially be served as well as local ones. I see great possibilities in delivering information to those doing research in the
field via satellite phones and similar technology. This can be extended to the research and educational needs of places lacking
the major basic and historical collections essential to the study of botany, if approached in the spirit of global information
availability.
The initial capture and storage of data are vital issues, needing dedicated high capacity storage devices which are currently
magnetic or magneto-optical media. Such equipment is costly and likely to have a relatively short life expectancy in terms of it
becoming obsolete quite quickly, let alone the data storage format itself becoming obsolete. We have also to consider the
longevity of all digital materials, by which I mean tapes, CDs and other laser disc formats, magnetic and magneto-optical discs
and even the once familiar punched tapes and punched cards, perhaps. Bandwidth for delivery of all this data to the user will
increase in time, so access and availability of the data should increase. The link to the user becomes a critical pathway, perhaps
sooner than the upgrading of the user's PC, as Internet access and availability increases amongst the general population. This is
noticeably happening in Britain, where even my small local Public Library now has bookable free Internet access. This must
surely be the way such access will develop and I suggest such examples be followed closely for developments. This emphasises
that critical link to the users. Can they get access to what they want in botany, easily, cheaply and is the required resource
globally or only locally available? There are many answers to such questions, depending on the user. I refer you at this point, to
the International Plant Name Index (IPNI) project and its distributed access structure.
Many documents use images, which can take many forms and have so many file types, each with specific file format standards
to be considered and many needing special viewing software, sometimes not commonly available. I offer a recent example of a
set of Chinese CD-ROMs we received, as did other similar institutions. After six months, I am still awaiting a certain driver to
be installed on our PCs so we may just evaluate the content of those discs. Images are all very well and I would be amongst the
first to promote their application. However, we need to consider how we match file sizes to user need and means of access,
which includes bandwidth issues in their transmission. Then there are the issues of machine capabilities, such as the amount of
RAM and processor speed available, which will vary around the world as well as within any research institute or other site. We
need to remember such things as local policy on the upgrading and provision of PCs and networking.
Can your data even be captured electronically in the first place? The issues to be considered here are such as whether an item
is physically fit to be scanned. Would some other means of capture be better for a document or image, such as photography
followed by a transparency or negative being scanned, if the specialised equipment then needed is available? Perhaps
documents need preparation, curation or preservation, even before they can be scanned or photographed. You would only
wish to capture data once and then in the best way, to get the most useful output or range of outputs for long-term future use
and access. Do not forget either, that preserved items will themselves need looking after beyond their scanning date in most
places, such as my own, where they are to be kept indefinitely for posterity.
I suggest that the type and size of data files created from original and printed items should be fit for their intended purpose.
Clearly, derivative smaller files in other formats might be made from the master or made additionally when an item is scanned.
This will enable users maximum flexibility in terms of access and use of the images and all within reasonable technical limits of
hardware and software. However, considering the time and resources needed to create data files from activities like scanning,
this is not always an easy option to assess. If making image files, you will need a special software environment to view them in
which may be a database, properly configured and possibly searchable. Special handling features may be needed if there is text
to be manipulated with specific images and if output is required. That might also have to be configurable. The common use of
technology and its application makes the actual data involved a secondary issue, I suggest. It is more a question of how best it
might be to do something in the interests of just a few, or perhaps the many people who are intended to be the users or the
audience of data. An example of this would be NASA's web site of astronomical and space exploration images where they
offer a range of formats and file sizes for downloading and viewing.
The importance of collaboration
It is useful here to reflect on the common needs of seemingly disparate organisations and the good that can be achieved by
interaction and discussion between them. It can be too easy to work with and develop systems in isolation, independently of
others who might benefit from a joint approach to such a topic. The sharing of know-how is possibly a more beneficial route, as
rapid advancement to the desired results may be achieved that way. Pooling resources locally can be beneficial in data handling,
as can be international collaboration, such as in the case of the IPNI project. Remember though, data users are not necessarily
just local any longer and they will probably not have the hardware and software the originators of the data possess. Also
consider that editors of data files must have a different level of security arrangements from other users of that data. Librarians
use these tools, as does the end-user, but they are not necessarily the persons with skills in the relevant IT areas, despite being
the data creators and users.
The attractions of automated and web-displayed botanical information can bring benefits, such as drawing interest from people
previously unaware of botany, and their seeing what it can mean for them, in many ways. The downside to this is the possible
and potential extra demand on the newly advertised resources, both electronic and physical, if the actual original material then
needs to be provided for users. Artwork and manuscripts could fall into such a category.
To summarise, there are many technical issues to consider, such as standards of data capture, storage, processing and
transmission capabilities. Consider the expertise required to plan, assess and utilise the hardware and software required for
database creation and file handling. This may imply considerable long-term financial commitment and investment in skills,
training and equipment, besides keeping pace with developments, techniques and upgrading. The transition from a traditional
library and information environment to the digital world can be very exciting but equally dangerous and painful to experience.
We need to be sure of our steps in this new world and of continuing support, with investment in all the many resources needed
to keep it running and developing. Perception of what is involved and needed often does not match the reality, so technical
advice, awareness and interaction with other specialists is at least desirable, to share experiences.
The Digital Libraries Initiative is an American multi-agency activity, involving major names such as the National Science
Foundation, NASA, Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA). Together they will look into the ways digital information can be networked from libraries, with the use of innovative
technology. The arts and sciences are embraced by this work through the use of this intellectual infrastructure.
Libraries are recognised as having a digital information life cycle, such as we are discussing today. The understanding of the
implications and capabilities of digital libraries is also part of the groups' work. In 1999, NASA is looking towards an open
archival information system. Similarly, the August 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic
and Artistic Works in Philadelphia will be discussing preservation issues relating to electronic media and the impact of
technology on the way conservators carry out fundamental work. Our thoughts are clearly mirrored in other disciplines,
suggesting much collaboration may be desirable. The question of whether records of the twentieth century are at risk appeared
in a recent article in the journal Cultural Resource Management. I consider this Session as another step towards providing an
answer.
Conclusion
The computer environment crosses many boundaries but as we get used to this, our needs and pattern of information use will
change. Our interpretation of what we want, what we store and where and how often we revisit it, will also change. Can we
achieve considered exploitation of information without ruining the very objects we have said must be preserved and carefully
stored, and yet still provide a substitute? Whatever the data, it will still need to be checked, verified for integrity and use, and
from time to time, be copied into a new format to make continued access possible against a backdrop of ever changing
technology. Secure and safe storage off-site will be essential, just as it is for microform copies of material today.
But why do we need to save at least some physical copies from loss? The documents themselves still hold information about
their history, the subject' s history and publishing history, which can so far only be physically saved. But if we preserve and
conserve these items, they will become objects, artifacts of the knowledge they contain and represent. There is, should be and
will be a place for them. If I stray into a fictional mode again briefly, even the starships of the future will need a library. We have
already seen our screen heroes using a ship's library, so I do not think we are far wrong in our vision of the future. The
computer, or whatever that comes to be known as, will have to eventually supplant the traditional library. It will in effect
become its successor.
According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary of 1933, the word 'library' can mean "a place set apart to contain books
for reading, study or reference" as well as meaning "a great mass of erudition" or "the objects of study, the sources on which a
person depends for instruction." The word was first recorded in the English language in 1450 but records of libraries go back to
the time of the Greeks. There will be books in the future but they will be few in number by comparison with the quantities now
existing, just as the incunabula of the past, those books printed before 1500, have become rare treasures themselves. If we
consider just botany, it is a massive preservation project for consideration. How much of that information will be of use in the
future, I do not know, but what is needed by botanists and what is needed by historians will be rather different, I suspect. Any
action will require careful planning and a global awareness, as all languages will need to be considered. This is no easy task and
one needing much specialist input.
So, what does the future hold for our botanical libraries? Already there are powerful new computer processor chips in
development with 600 to 750 MHz clocks. Data storage devices and their capacity are being taken to massive new limits,
perhaps even extraordinary levels, if some rumours can be believed. Machines are getting smaller and lighter to carry, with
longer lasting power reserves. Our readers already frequently bring in their laptops. In the future we may permit them to be
connected to a local network socket so data may be directly processed from local facilities. Indeed, the way botany develops
may even require this type of interaction if it becomes very genetically based, numeric or graphically demanding for taxonomic
studies. Recent proposals for the developing Index of Plant Names will certainly require users to interrogate a global live
database and permit names to be submitted for authentication and acceptance, or even editing. If my hopes for greater
interaction with those in the field turn out to be a workable reality, then we will see even wider use of field technology and
greater demand for portable data and remote access to library holdings. Such information gathering would itself cause storage
issues. Perhaps I might eventually see a satellite dish or its successor on top of my library roof?
I emphasise the need to watch for changes in the way botanical, ecological and environmental information is being used and for
what trends there are in its application, to help us determine what needs to be preserved and made available to users of all
disciplines. Data is these days rather too easy to capture, in some respects. This is a danger to our botanical digital collection
too. Someone has to make use of the data sometime, but when and where? We will not know. Statistics become largely
irrelevant for the use of data stored long-term, as they do with books, so we cannot adjudicate on any perceptions of lack of
use.
Finally, I would like to suggest you might read the pages of a few web sites. The Society for the Preservation of Natural History
Collections show their Guidelines for the care of natural history collections, whilst the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) web page has many topics relating to our presentations. It includes a phrase, "to ensure ready access
to essential evidence." This is very significant, I suggest, to all of us who carry out preservation and conservation activities. I
would also recommend the web pages of the Research Libraries Group (RLG) Preservation Working Group on Digital
Archiving, and the European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA), which aims to raise public awareness of
preservation needs and the criticality of issues.
If we were leaving earth for the last time tomorrow, what would we take? Is the answer any different from that given if we are
leaving the present and the past to enter an electronic future?
|
|
CBHL Homepage
Top of the page
