<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><font size="2" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">There are several good reasons to
keep a bound register for accessions, including permanence, security, legal
standing, and sustainability.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%"><font size="2">The problem with databases (and
all other information stored electronically) is that it is not permanent or
secure. Ultimately, whether it is maintained on a limited-access hard drive or in
cloud storage, all electronic information storage is based on the use of plastic
resins and magnetized metallic particles, neither of which are permanent, and neither
of which will endure as long as acid-free paper and good ink. The only way to
keep electronic information readable is to re-format the data every few
years, which is extraordinarily expensive over time, and which will result in data
loss with repeated software and hardware changes. Re-formatting of electronic information
is rarely a budget line in museums.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%"><font size="2">A hand-written, bound ledger of
accession information has clear legal standing because a bound ledger is very
difficult to alter without leaving physical evidence behind; by contrast,
electronic files are very easy to change without a trace. Should an institution
ever have a legal issue that involves proof of acquisition, the bound ledger of
accessions will be a far more supportive document than an electronic file. <span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%"><font size="2"><span> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span>It is important to emphasize that at present, there is no way to
preserve electronically stored information for the next 20 or 30 years, much
less several hundred years in the future, but we know that properly cared for
paper documents will last at least 500 years. An example: </span><span style="color:black">Walter Isaacson wrote biographies of both
Steve Jobs and Leonardo Da Vinci, and Issacson has</span><span> </span><span style="color:black">pointed out that 7,200 pages
of Leonardo’s notebooks that are extant (about a quarter of the pages of the
original notebooks) is</span><span> </span><span style="color:black">“a higher percentage after five
hundred years than the percentage of Steve Job’s emails and digital documents
from the 1990s that he and I were able to retrieve.”<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span style="color:black"><span> </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span style="color:black">Add to this that printing electron information
on paper using available desktop printers does not produce a permanent copy. Desktop
laser printers do not produce the same quality copy as do commercial laser
printers, and no laser printing technology equals the permanence of letterpress
printing or hand-writing on acid-free paper with good quality ink.</span><span><span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span><span> </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2">Museums,
particularly natural history museums, should be concerned about using
sustainable practices when possible. In this regard, paper-based records have essentially
a one-time carbon impact (the production of the paper and ink), while
electronic records have an on-going carbon footprint for as long as they are maintained<span>. Current
estimates are that s</span><span style="color:black">toring just 1 GB of digital
information has a carbon cost of about 2.25 kg of CO2 per year. As museums
continue to generate electronic information they need to consider what this
means in terms of contributing to climate change.<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span style="color:black"><span> </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span style="color:black">Electronic information has many advantages (ease of searching, editing,
and sharing chief among them), but we need to keep in mind that electronic information
is not secure, permanent, or sustainable. Museums should carefully consider
which documents should be paper-based for archival purposes (for example,
accession files, catalogs, and loan documents), which should be both (such as
catalogs and loan documents, for ease of searching and sharing), and which
should be born-digital (responses to queries, office memos, correspondence that
does not require a legal signature, etc.).<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span style="color:black"><span> </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="color:black"><font size="2" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">—John</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="color:black"><font size="2" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></font><span></span></span></p>
</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John E. Simmons<br>Writer and Museum Consultant</span></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br><i>and</i><br>Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia<br>Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 9:34 AM Willem Coetzer Dr. <<a href="mailto:W.Coetzer@saiab.nrf.ac.za">W.Coetzer@saiab.nrf.ac.za</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-6266814970063221665">
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<p class="MsoNormal">If your museum uses a paper book or register to record either accessions (batches of material coming into the organization) or specimens catalogued as part of a collection, please let me know via a separate message, including the reason
why you do this and why it is not sufficient to rely on a database.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<td nowrap><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt"><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt">Willem Coetzer Dr.</font></font></td>
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<td nowrap><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt"><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt">Biodiversity Information Manager</font></font></td>
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<td nowrap><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt"><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt"><font style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:10pt">Office:
</font>+27 46 603 5841</font></font></td>
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<p><font color="#4f6128" size="2" face="Calibri">Please consider the environment before printing this message.</font></p>
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