[Air-L] got a story about frustrations of research using old or archived software?

[Patricia Aufderheide]

I'm working with some great legal scholars on an analysis of problems in
software preservation, and are finding great archivists, but they often
can't tell us much about what researchers would like to do with software
that's been archived if they could. We've heard from the archivists that
generally researchers want to access content by using obsolete software,
and we understand that sometimes you might be interested in studying
versions or iterations of the content that might be stored on archived
software  (e.;g. a WordPerfect file on an author's laptop) but we're also
thinking that people might want to have access to archived software for
other kinds of research as well. We hypothesize that people might want to
study the history of software, or to analyze activity on a gaming platform,
or....gosh, we don't know. Have you had a project be frustrated because you
couldn't go to a library or archive (virtually or physically) and get
access to archived software? If so we'd love to hear about it in any way
you'd like to tell us. Feel free to share the request.

-- 
Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication
Founder, Center for Media & Social Impact
American University
4400 Massachusetts Av., NW
American University, Washington, DC 20016-8017
McKinley Hall 323
@paufder @cmsimpact
cmsimpact.org
paufder at american.edu
202-885-2069 office <202-643-5356>
240-643-4805 mobile
<202-643-5356>


"The world we have received also belongs to those who follow us." --Pope
Francis