The end of physical audiovisual media is something that most organizations with holdings of legacy AV collections recognize in some way, but it is a general notion. Something for the next person to worry about perhaps? When you add a reference point and put the end on the horizon it tends to get more attention. But still people wax philosophical and get into theoretical conversations about the relative virtues of film over tape, or grooved media over optical disc. And people put stock into technical innovation/heroism swooping in at the last minute to save us from a certain end.
This paper formulates, articulates and empowers participants with unprecedented information, concepts and a tool to help tackle one of the most critical issues facing archives today.
Bertram Lyons will present on ‘COI: The Cost of Inaction Calculator’. This presentation will demonstrate an open and free tool, and the concepts behind it, which helps organizations analyze the implications of choosing not to do anything. COI is a counter-perspective to the concept of ""ROI"", or Return on Investment, often raised with ill-effect when decision makers analyze digitization and preservation projects. COI adds a data point to ROI and helps effectively articulate what is lost in the way of access, intellect and finances by not acting.