How Long Do You Want Digital Storage Media to Last?

The DVD Association, in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, wants to know so the two groups are conducting a survey .

Deadline for submission: May 31, 2005

From the announcement: For more than 15 years, recordable optical disc technology has proven to be a very versatile and convenient storage and distribution medium. It has become the medium of choice in many government agencies as well as many organizations within the private sector. It has also been shown that both recordable CD and DVD can be very stable and robust. But, as occurs with many successful technologies, a multitude of suppliers have entered the worldwide marketplace with varying degrees of product quality.

Since there is no way to distinguish disc quality at the time of purchase, it could result in the acquisition of questionable media for long-term storage applications. This issue may become more acute in lowest-bid procurement.

The DVD Association, in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is sponsoring this survey conducted by one of its¹ technical working groups, the Government Information Preservation Working Group (GIPWoG).  GIPWoG is working with NIST to establish a long-term, or archival, standard measurement for recordable CD and DVD media. This measurement will serve as a standard industry test to determine the archival quality of recordable optical media. The test will not measure how actual media longevity, but will determine if it lasts at least a minimum number of years. The number of years used in the test standard will be determined by your responses.

How long? How about until the baby boomer librarians retire.