From: NSLA Consortium <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2015 23:42:11 +0000

My colleagues at the National Library of Australia have an extensive
collection of vintage software and computer equipment for this very
purpose.
See the recent article:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-20/collecting-retro-computer-technology-to-save-digital-treasures/6560494

Regards
Libby Cass

Libby Cass | Manager eResources Consortium
National Library of Australia
e: [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 20:49:54 -0700

This is a fascinating and beautiful resopnse to my question.  I will
work through the solution at this point sort of "on principle":
because it *can* be done.  Thank you!

But let me generalize a little further.  Imagine you were a library
with a resource from a vendor that came with (a) data in standard
formats, (b) crippleware, and (c) a non-standard user interface.
You've "bought" it for "perpetual access", but you know it won't last
long left to its own devices.  So your choices are (a) don't buy it,
(b) buy it, live with its limitations, and let it die after a finite
number of years, or (c) invest staff and systems time in rescuing it.
In this case, that third option is not terribly expensive, but it has
a cost.  The saving grace here is that the data are in sufficiently
standard formats that the rescue is fairly simple.

Now multiply this kind of problem by the number of different breeds
and brands of digital resources we deal with.  What we now have that
we'll have in 20 years is a function in too many cases of what we'll
be willing to put into making it work.

Jim O'Donnell
ASU


On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 6:18 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Brian Harrington <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:47:10 -0400
> Subject: Re: Complete New Yorker
> Yes, indeed.  Our friends at boing boing were on the case not long after it was released.  I haven't gotten around to moving it to my new(ish) machine, but I liked running it from the hard drive just for the convenience factor of not having to deal with swapping DVDs.
>
> Here's the URL:
> http://boingboing.net/2006/01/11/howto-disable-the-cr.html
>
> And, for your convenience, here's the Wayback Machine link for the detailed HOWTO from "Gustaf":
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110817144038/http://gustaf.symbiandiarie
> s.com/weblog/books/CNY-on-hard-drive.html
>
> I hope this helps,
>
> Brian
>
> Brian Harrington
> (not speaking for) LYRASIS
>
>
> LIBLICENSE wrote:
>
>> From: "Jim O'Donnell"<[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 09:33:36 -0700
>>
>> The New Yorker published a "complete New Yorker" product in 2005 on 8
>> DVDs, supported it for a couple of years, then abandoned it and the
>> people who purchased it.  I have the DVDs and just got them working,
>> with some difficulty, on a Windows 7 machine, but I'm curious whether
>> anyone remembering this product knows of any successful attempt to
>> capture the data and make it available more accessibly.  The desktop
>> support wizard who helped me install it (took some doing) says the
>> data seem all to be on the disks unencrypted in standard formats, so
>> in principle you could do something.  Has anyone done so?
>>
>> This is a case study in "perpetual access":  what does it mean in
>> practice to "own" a digital resource that you've "purchased" from a
>> vendor?
>>
>> Jim O'Donnell
>> ASU