Any physical storage medium is, by definition, completely dependent upon very specific combinations of hardware and software for access. The accessibility of information stored on such media is highly vulnerable in today’s rapidly evolving technological environment. This issue is not solely the concern of digital archivists, but of all those responsible for managing and sustaining access to electronic records over even relatively short timescales. No computer storage medium can be considered archival, irrespective of its physical longevity: technological obsolescence is inevitable and all media have limited life spans. For the foreseeable future, the need to periodically refresh electronic records.
