Paper Storage - The Benefits

Information written in pen or printed on paper is durable (if protected from water) and lasts.

Books hundreds of years old are still readable, as are marriage, birth and death certificates, wills and love letters and other more personal and prosaic documents. Registrars and archivists love written documents, as do Barristers, Solicitors and Judges!

The same information “saved” on electronic media can be lost and has been lost. The time they might last cannot be guaranteed. Electronic records can be held on various media; DVDs are current but are being replaced by solid state gadgets, with huge storage capacity, but with unknown life duration. If the electronic medium lasts, the machine to read that information may no longer be available to access it. Does anyone still remember the 5.25-Inch diskette?

This old technology is gone, as is the 3.5 inch disc and similarly with recording tape. These were replaced with the CD, which is disappearing and now the DVD is going the same way. The rate of change is accelerating!

For organisations, information received, action taken as a result and decisions made, must be retained to protect both the individual and organisation, from economic and reputational damage. Information recorded on a durable medium and kept in dry storage can be relied on to protect the individual and organisation for decades.

See additional press reports below...