Overall Goals

The project is laid out in three successive phases with specific objectives and activities.

1. Define benchmarks for discs, define the sample for massive monitoring and the evaluation card for the users participating in the campaign; define the ideal conservation conditions of discs.  Choose the supports to test:
   • recordable supports available on the market, including the products apparently more reliable for duration, and several of the more commercial products, in order to have a term of comparison.
   • supports (CD-Rs) recorded before 2000 which will form a first significant “natural” sample of the backup supports realised by conservation institutions these past years.  The institutions that can supply these supports are the Archivi di Stato di Roma, Firenze e Perugia; the Biblioteche Nazionali di Roma e Firenze; the Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze.
   • printed supports selected on the basis of two criteria:  the year of production and the printer/producer.  It is therefore indispensable for the work group to draw up an index of producers of CDs and DVDs on a national basis – but not only.  Updating this index can become one of the stable activities of the monitoring service.  The institutions where the supports can be selected are the Biblioteche Nazionali di Roma e Firenze and the Discoteca di Stato.


2. Conduct massive monitoring and analyse the results, so as to identify possible recurrent "pathologies".  


3. Develop the modalities of a "diagnostic service" in care of CFLR, and lay out recommendations as to the ideal conditions for disc conservation and management. Divulge results and plan for the long-term implementation of the services created during the project.  For the cultural institutions preserving digital material, CFLR can perform a role of reference by supplying training as to the ideal conditions for disc preservation and management, as well as by offering a ‘diagnostic service’ to cultural institutions.