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Theresa Regli

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Epic floods, covered bridges, and the importance of archiving

31-Aug-2011

Tags: Digital and Media Asset Management, Document Management (ECM), E-mail Archiving and Management, Implementation

I’m a part-time resident of the state of Vermont (USA). Sunday was the most devastating day in the 15 years I’ve frequented the Quechee Valley in the central-east part of the state. Hurricane Irene caused our rivers to overflow, flooding the valley with several feet of water, mud and silt, and the mounting, monstrous flood took out a large chunk of our historic 1853 covered bridge. The Quechee village center is a shadow of what it once was. Pieces of history all over the state have simply been washed away.

Here’s a picture of the Farmer’s Market in nearby Woodstock, VT, where I do most of my grocery shopping:

Directly behind that building to the left is the office of the Vermont Standard newspaper. Forty years of print archives went under water, and are completely destroyed.

Now, unlike my colleague Alan Pelz-Sharpe, I don’t specialize in archiving – but customers often ask me if it’s worth the effort. This picture answers that question.

As Irene crawled up the coast, we Vermonters were ready for high winds and power outages, but never expected our rivers to crest beyond historic levels. Just about every story of data, information, or historic loss starts with the phrase “we never expected.” I never expected to experience an earthquake when I was in Virginia last week, either. But there it was, shaking a room full of brand managers near Richmond (close to the epicenter), as we discussed digital asset management over afternoon coffee.

I admit feeling complete rage upon seeing comments on social media sites to the effect that historic bridges washing away “doesn’t really matter.” Some might say the same about a newspaper’s archives, or even a major corporation’s records. This is short-sighted and ignorant thinking. Don’t be afraid to say the same to your boss (in a more diplomatic fashion) if he tells you a proper archiving plan isn’t worth the investment. Archiving goes beyond records management, compliance, or other everyday business matters -- it is also about preserving culture and history. One of our CIO customers refers to it as "collective cumulative knowledge," built up over time. And really, how many more natural disasters or other tragedies should it take before this becomes a no-brainer?

In Vermont, several of our historic bridges will have to be rebuilt. I don’t know if the state has the original plans for those bridges, enabling us to reconstruct them as originally built more than a hundred years ago. But if I were to build one of those bridges today, I’d make sure someone 100 years from now could reconstruct it in the exact same way, again.