Back to Paper? An Alternative Approach to Conserving Digital Images into the Twenty-Third Century

Abstract

Many museums and other archives worldwide are digitising their collections. However, it does not follow that the digitised data files are likely to survive any longer than the artefact that has been copied. Curators have centuries of experience in the conservation of paper and pigments, but there are many unpredictable factors in the preservation of digital archives, which implies digital storage and data migration hundreds of years into the future. This chapter explores an alternative proposal to archive vital images and documents as hard copy inkjet prints. We suggest that this will increase their chances of survival into the twenty-third century. We are not advocating this method in place of digital materials, but rather as a sound form of insurance, based on existing well-known methods of the conservation of acid free paper and pigments.