Volume 44, Issue 3

The greatest risk in preservation is lack of motivation. Why we should be in need of preservation at all, why we should need the enduring access to information, is far from agreed upon. Correspondingly, preservation institutions are continually in danger. Thus one of the most important functions of institutions is to survive. The public motivation of preservation is one of the foremost tasks of preservation institutions. It is important to analyze the pros and cons of some of the most popular current motivational discourses – those based on the terms cultural treasures , cultural heritage , and cultural memory – and examine the lesser known but more effective alternatives such as intergenerational justice , tradition as an ongoing conversation , and keeping the present accessible. In doing that, the article addresses fundamental questions concerning the function, the raison d’ȇtre , of libraries and archives. The paper concludes with a proposition for further research.

As museum objects are digitized, curators will need to examine closely the potential for digital objects to represent, and possibly distort, the authentic information contained in material objects. This work examines the complex preservation issues facing Polaroid photographs by Andy Warhol, as a case example of a distributed collection of relatively fragile, non-reproducible photographs which have recently been digitized, but with uncertain consequences for how audiences might experience the Polaroids in digital form. With the potential for digital objects to outlast the Polaroids, this work highlights the need for rich documentation to ensure that digital representations might be able to serve as a practicable preservation medium for material objects.