On Sat, 13 Nov 2004, Marcello Perathoner wrote:
kris foster wrote:
this is a dangerous reliance on a transitory medium. electronic citation is merely more convenient.
What makes medium permanence a value per se ?
Academia has developed its traditions around a medium (papyrus, paper) that is permanent. Not the other way around. If the medium they had used was impermanent the methods and traditions of Academia would be different today.
If you visit any library archive, you might be surprised at the preservations problems they are having on an ever increasing level. A decade or so ago, the Library of Congress just completely gave up on trying to keep much of their newspaper collection, and decided to microfilm what they could and to sell off the rest of those archives before they completely fell apart. I bought several volumes from about a century ago, of the New York Herald, just so I could have an additional perspective on the era. Of course, much of the most interesting parts wouldn't be referenced, as they are advertizing. . .such as the first New York apartments that included cooking facilities. Michael