
After the Fire: HP Archivist Pledges to Rebuild - MilnerRoute
https://www.spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/geek-life/history/after-the-fire-hp-archivist-pledges-to-rebuild-what-she-can
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WalterBright
"Many archives of that age and size don’t get digitized because the papers are
of different sizes and thicknesses. It is expensive and it is difficult to
make sure you have the necessary accuracy."

I don't buy this. I've archived a lot of family documents. Putting them on a
flat bed scanner and pushing the button works just fine - it is not expensive
nor difficult nor inaccurate.

When I was on a trip and had only brief access to a big pile of old letters, I
simply took out my phone and took photos of the papers, one by one. It took
literally a few seconds a page. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but later
going through the photos, I was very pleased with the results.

I suspect that sometimes archivists get obsessed with perfection, and wind up
with nothing as a result. What's really valuable about the HP archive was the
text, not the coffee stain on the paper. The archive copy only has to be good
enough to read the text, and for that a common handheld phone camera is way
more than adequate.

~~~
joe_the_user
Well,

The way I read the article, apparently copies do exist of all or most of the
documents.

    
    
        Putting the rest together is going to be like making a
        patchwork quilt out of scraps. Fortunately, annotated
        indexes of the Packard and Hewlett—box by box, folder 
        by folder—exist, with copies stored on a variety of
        computers, both personal and corporate. 
    

So the problem is that these are piecemeal copies scattered around the various
pieces of HP.

~~~
userbinator
...and hopefully they also salvage as much as they can from the remains of the
fire --- paper is flammable, but from what I've read, densely-packed documents
can char on the outside but remain intact on the inside, since the carbonised
layer can act as an effective protective insulator.

(Anyone who has tried to roast thick pieces of meat may have seen the same
effect --- burnt on the outside, but bloody raw on the inside.)

------
bebop22
How many different models of scanners have they made over the years?

~~~
userbinator
And backup solutions too:

[https://www.hpe.com/us/en/storage/data-protection-
solutions....](https://www.hpe.com/us/en/storage/data-protection-
solutions.html)

------
mathattack
"I don't have funding at this point" \- seems strange when it's a corporate
asset. Should a University take over the archive?

