Passage - General Questions

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Passage Discussion

This passage deals with some of the challenges of archiving information that is being produced at an
ever-increasing rate, which increases potential for loss. This task is complicated by issues of media
durability; from the amount of information stored on non-durable media will be impossible to find
all works of value before some are inevitably destroyed.

Paragraph One:

The opening sentence of the first paragraph introduces the subject of the passage: As information
production increases, so does the potential to lose this information. “One archivist” notes that the
amount of information being saved is increasing exponentially, as recording media’s durability
decreases nearly as quickly. The author closes the paragraph by presenting a few examples of
these decreases: compared with Mesopotamian clay tablets and medieval parchments that still
exist in good condition, books from the 1980’s can no longer be read. Compared with black and
white photography that can last for centuries, color pictures generally last only about 40 years, and
videotapes about 20 years.

Paragraph Two:

Here the author presents potential solutions and issues associated with them. Electronic storage
allows storage of a lot of information while occupying very little space, but new generations of
technology render past approaches obsolete; for example, the optical storage used in the 1980’s may
no longer be retrievable because the software and hardware necessary is no longer available. Further,
more recent digital storage can deteriorate after just ten years. So, despite a reluctance to rely on
computer technology, their time is running out.

Paragraph Three:

In the final paragraph, the author discusses issues that would present themselves in the event that
durable forms of sufficient storage were developed. Decisions would have to be made quickly
regarding what to keep and what not to keep, given that currently stored information keep
deteriorating. While some works have endured because of their popularity (examples presented are
those of the works of Homer and Virgil), others have been rediscovered only by chance, and others,
in all likelihood, have not survived at all. In closing, the author states that the existing danger does
not concern modern masterpieces’ being lost, but rather the impossibility of discerning all of the
important information currently stored before it’s too late to store it.

VIEWSTAMP Analysis:

The Viewpoint presented in the passage is that of the author, presented throughout the passage.

The Structure of the passage is as follows:

Paragraph 1: Present the issue of increasing information production, coinciding with more
quickly deteriorating modes of storing that information, providing examples
of such decreases in durability.

Paragraph 2: Discuss the potential solution of computer technology, and the limitations
found in such methods’ increasing rate of durability and obsolescence.

Paragraph 3: Close the passage with a challenge that will remain even if more durable
storage is developed: that of discerning the vital from the dispensable in time
to save in the most important works currently stored.

The author’s Tone is academic, well reasoned, and perhaps somewhat concerned about the issues
that information storage present and will continue to present.

The onlyArgument presented in the passage is that of the author, that information storage presents
issues currently, and will likely continue to present challenges even if current problems are
addressed.

The author’s Main Point is that as information continues to be produced in exponentially increasing
rates, issues of storage will continue to present challenges of durability and decisions about what is
important and what isn’t.