History Channel, Library of Congress and Media Storage

On "Modern Marvels" (originally aired on June 10, 2010, aired again last night, November 9, 2010) was a very interesting show regarding our Library of Congress, entitled, "The Real National Treasure".  My wife and I were engrossed in how many forms of media were preserved for all of us to view.  Here is an original link to the History Channel:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/history-channel-features-the-library-of-congress-on-modern-marvels_100378827.html

One thing we mentioned here on the blog was that of compact disc (CD) degradation.  The Library of Congress does very extensive testing on CDs (as well as other forms of storage) from all manufacturers and has found that discs made my the same manufacturers can degrade at different rates- one will be pristine for years, another will totally degrade within a matter of months.  Why?  Manufacturers will research how to save money by changing composition and content of the disc itself, without alerting the consumer...so don't bet on ANY CDs being of any quality.

Since we began this blog, we've used jump drives/thumb drives/whatever you call them to store pictures and audio.  So far, I've not noticed any degradation, and I don't store them with any bowling balls!

I haven't had time (yet) to watch the videos, but The History Channel provides some for us to view:

http://www.history.com/topics/library-of-congress

They'd also mentioned that one can view many, many things directly on the Library of Congress website:

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Music, literature, pictures, maps, it's all there...who knows what treasure you'll find there!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)