Steve Marks, Trends in archives practice, module 8, becoming a trusted digital repository

摘要

In 1975 NASA's Viking Lander probes collected data from the surface of Mars. This data was stored on magnetic tape and appropriately stored for long term preservation and access. Over time the tapes deteriorated, and by the 1990s the information they contained could no longer be accessed in an intelligible format. Fortunately, printouts of the data had been kept and these were retyped and stored in a more reliable digital format. This was a painful lesson and from it came the Open Archival Information System (OAIS ), proposed by the space community.