> Generally speaking, if you have to wonder about the value of something,
you
already have the answer.... ;)

Kyle, I honestly am not sure which answer you are suggesting is the right
one in cases where you have to wonder!

By temperament, most of us library professionals are inclined to want to
err on the side of "preservation" -- shouldn't we preserve it _just in
case_, because once gone it will be too late if someone needs it later?

But by practice and feasibility, most actual preservation operations
usually have to err on the side of "not preservation".  We could not
possibly have the funds/resources to preserve everything that _just might
possibly_ be useful later, having a sustainable operation usually means
erring on the side of not preserving unless it's value is clear.

Jonathan



On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 1:48 PM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 9:10 AM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > As I sit here watching my EAD files get indexed by Solr, I ask myself,
> “To
> > what degree are we — the Code4Lib community — curating our content?”
> >
> > Seriously, our “community” generates content, and the bulk of it takes
> > three or four forms: the mailing list, the journal, the wiki, and
> > conference agendas/schedules. How “important” is this content? While it
> my
> > very well be backed up, and while it may very well be restorable, I
> wonder
> > about its intrinsic values...
> >
>
> Generally speaking, if you have to wonder about the value of something, you
> already have the answer.... ;)
>
> But seriously, just because a theoretical use case can be imagined is not a
> good reason to dedicate resources -- this is the very definition of a
> solution looking for a problem.
>
> Whether or not  content is formally organized, the good stuff has and will
> continue to permeate thinking/systems/processes elsewhere.
>
> kyle
>