To discuss the future of architectural records is not an easy thing to do. It means that we must we predict the future not only of architecture, but also of technology. Predicting architectural trends is certainly difficult enough, but the pitfalls in predicting technology may be even more difficult to navigate. Further, we recognize that we are also not blessed with remarkable predictive capabilities. In the early 1980s, when computers were just beginning to become popular in many architectural offices, as well as businesses in general, dot-matrix printers seemed like a wonderful combination of computer technology and the written document. Unlike daisy-wheel printers, which delivered a "letter-quality" document at the price of speed, the dot-matrix printers combined speed with a technological aesthetic. I predicted that this would replace the business standard Courier or Times-Roman letter forms in business practice. Within months of the prediction, laser-printing technology was available from mail-order firms. . . .
Still, after some serious considering, we realized that our viewpoint as outsiders to the library field might mean that there would be something we could add to help librarians avoid at least some potential pitfalls now and in the future. Many of our comments are computer related. This is probably primarily due to the belief that many of the records and documents that will need stewardship in the future will be computer generated and potentially only retrievable with computer technology. It may also be due to the overwhelming influence computers have on our lives as faculty members teaching design computing.
If we concentrate on the near future and look for general trends rather than specific projects, we believe we can have insights which are likely to be useful to those planning for the future.
WHAT TO SAVE
The decision as to what to save has always been a major problem. Its magnitude has been compounded with the advent of new technologies and storage media. There may also be a growing split between what architectural librarians in academia save versus librarians in professional practice. The former need to concentrate on the historical value of the work while the latter may need to worry about the aspects of architecture that demand up-to-date material specifications and preserving legal documents. Obviously, much of this is a resource driven problem, but we will suggest what ideally could and should be saved.
Currently architectural librarians are responsible for a wide range of material: books, samples, drawings, slides, product binders, etc. There is going to be much more to manage and much more to keep. As no strong standards have developed, there will be more formats and more chances for losing information even with the best intentions of preserving it. You will not be out of a job. Information management is your specialty, and the best information-highway managers will be in strong positions.
Not only is there more to keep, but the material appears both in different media and with different content. With the media more types of things are available: diskettes, CD-ROM, laser discs, and videos to name a few. The standard guidelines apply to electronic files just as they did to drawings: "if you throw it out you will need it, and if you save it, it will never be needed again." Seriously though, saving magnetic and electronic documents is much more difficult than saving paper-based drawings and photographs. In fact, they are not documents--they are just containers for information. They are also not useful on their own; they need extra peripherals such as hardware and software to retrieve the information from them. As a case in point, some years ago, a friend of mine obtained a large number of videocassettes of popular (and less popular) films. He chose the Beta format due to lower prices. When that technology faded away, he responded by purchasing a quantity of used Beta VCR's to use for spare parts (an intelligent response towards keeping his film collection accessible). However, for a permanent collection this type of planning is not just good sense, it is a necessity.
It is not only new media, but also additional content within the documents that will be difficult to save, catalog, and access. An electronic drawing is more than just an image on paper; it is a database. Minimally, it is a complete, accurate two-dimensional depiction of a building. Yet it usually includes filenames, views, and layers. It may also be three-dimensional with rendered images and animations. Other documents may also be associated with the drawing: correspondence, cost projections, project management, client presentations. Building analyses in structures, energy, solar zoning, and wind are becoming more important to keep: not only the results but the computer files themselves that were input. You could imagine the legal reasons for these circumstances but this documentation is also useful as part of the history of the project for bidding and coordinating future projects. Keeping track of general model databases such as a three-dimensional model of a city or geographic information about soil types or land use development, so that this material can be reused in future projects, becomes important. In early developments, these used to be unusual items and everyone "just knew" where they were kept. Now that the larger offices are starting to have many of these models, it is time to develop a plan.
Do not forget to keep track of current and historic software manuals, training guides, copies of software (application and system), and tutorials. Often these are in the realm of the system manager of the computer system, but especially reference materials and third-party books could easily become part of a library collection. Keep the original application program for projects that have been documented with computers. Those familiar with the Macintosh computer have seen the infamous dialogue box, "This was made with an incompatible version of the application software." Now that you have all of these databases of various kinds, you will need the software it was made with to be able to use it again. Worse yet-- there are entire sets of software support files that are needed to generate a computer document (CAD, modeling, or even word-processing). You will need to keep track of style sheets, fonts, texture files, and preference files. And don't forget the system software! A computer project is a combination of hardware, system software, application software, data files, and support files. Just keeping the data files will result in embarrassment later. You will not be able to count on the software companies to be in business when you need them most. Recent surveys document the vast range of software products Ref.1. There are literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of software companies in the architecture field alone, some of which go in and out of business quickly.
Remember that what to save, including new media, comes with the added responsibility of saving everything that it takes to actually retrieve the information. Otherwise, all you have is an useless diskette/tape/CD.
WHAT WILL THE PROBLEMS BE?
There are many sources of danger to the new technologies. As librarians you already worry about sunlight, humidity, information obsolescence, misplacement, patron damage, and perhaps theft. You now have these problems and more. There is a greater emphasis on "nothing is permanent" as not only does the information itself become obsolete, but so does the file type and storage media. New evils will come in the form of magnets, computer viruses, ordinary wear and tear (magnetic disks can just wear out), bad computer hardware (misaligned read-and-write heads on magnetic drives). The patrons can easily do more damage now than ever before. Files, computer software, and even the hardware are not particularly durable. Files are susceptible to damage from a variety of unconventional sources. Never before have you had books in your library that can be lost or damaged if the electrical power suddenly spiked or went out. You should keep backup copies of electronic files off-site (this is easy to do, but easier to overlook). Of course, there are no guarantees against fire, floods, earthquakes, and riots.
New skills will be needed for recovering lost or weird data. Patrons will tax your creativity to the limit with requests for new and ever changing digital solutions.
Another problem area is related to the perception that electronic files often do not look inherently valuable. At least blueprints looked like work had been expended in making them. Floppy disks look like they cost less than a dollar. You cannot tell by looking that the contents of a disk actually represents hundreds of hours of work and would cost thousands of dollars to replace, or that the diskette is empty and you kept the wrong one.
STORING DOCUMENTS
The problems associated with keeping electronic data are essentially the same as those associated with keeping any other large files. It is difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. The information may be incomplete or inaccurate. It may be out of date, (it is estimated that about two-thirds of the material in an architect's office is over four years old). It is environmentally wasteful to produce and then throw out (recycle?) binders that vendors supply, especially considering that approximately only a third of them ever get looked at. Also there are space problems in keeping the over 1000 binders on average; there is never enough space.
Even though the computer has occasionally been touted as a possible resolution for these issues, it really is not. It is an additional technology more than a replacement technology. Unlike in some businesses, nothing already in a library will automatically go away.
Storing documents in the electronic age will not take less physical space or be paperless. Architecture libraries have always been "multi-media" environments (and may have been among the first to be so). This will increase. Do not be fooled by the advertisements about materials samples on disk. They will exist, and they will work, but the designers will still want to touch materials and keep them. A screen image is not the same as a carpet sample: you cannot touch it. Also, computer monitor colors cannot be trusted to represent accurately the colors of the object.
Certainly it will be possible to have "samples-on-demand" so that offices do not have to keep all samples. Still, space problems will become more acute as we add new technology, and vendors still would like their material directly on your desktop (in addition to telling you about products in person and through electronic means).
Technology is changing at an increasing rate. The old stuff never goes away. Scan all the blueprints you want, there will be more. You will never catch up, and there will not be a time when it will all be electronic. Even if it is, there will be new advances in technology that will require another update. There seems to be little advantage in spending time and money to bring "standard details" up to date with a particular technology. If there is no present need for a particular detail, who is paying for the update? It is likely that updates like these won't be completed before the next technological advance renders the work obsolete again.
Who will help? Is anyone besides you worrying about this already? There are some partial solutions for having access to reference materials that are up to date and immediately available. CD-ROMs show some promise as a reference material. Vendors are supplying the material on disc and sending out updates as needed. There is an attempt at standards and supplying specifications and details in machine readable form (unusual term, because it does not imply at all that the information is in PERSON-readable form!).
AIA Online is thus far a not very successful attempt to provide a centralized source of information. It will improve over time as the AIA discovers what types of information and communications services to supply to their members. There will be also be other attempts to provide centralized information for the architecture, engineering, and construction industries.
Clients may be supplying electronic information to their architects. This is implied from the fact that clients are now asking for computer documents of their projects. It seems as though clients will eventually show up with electronic media in hand for an architect to use on a new project. This is a mixed blessing. Clients will bring information in from old projects that optimistically will allow the architect to start up more quickly on a project. Of course, it may be that he or she will also have to cope with unexpected, incomplete, and obsolete electronic information. Does this mean that architectural librarians will then have to become wizards of archaic formats in order to read clients' files?
DIVERGENCE BETWEEN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES AND PROFESSIONAL-PRACTICE LIBRARIES
Most of the examples discussed previously in the immediately preceding section dealt with easing the burden primarily of librarians in professional offices. It seems likely that there may be a growing divergence between academic and professional libraries. For both, incremental change is necessary; this includes the integration of computerized databases. In the office, perhaps samples on demand will become a realistic solution; you do not have all of them, but can call when you have a more detailed idea of what you are looking for. There may even be a split between those who have most of the material in-house versus those that use an outside service bureau/computerized network for their main source of information. Of course, keeping up with the legal issues of documents, paper-based and electronic is crucial. When will the courts address head-on the legal document status of electronically stored drawings? Change is coming.
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES
Academic libraries have additional responsibilities such as historical preservation, sharing information, and providing new services to students, staff, professors, and the community.
Preservation of historical architectural records such as the Maybeck collection at Berkeley, will continue in importance, only now there will also be electronic records to preserve. Video collections, electronic books -- heaven help the library that inherits my memoirs with its dearth of paper and wealth of bytes.
Architecture libraries will have a role in preparing material for other libraries (slide CD-ROMs, multimedia books, etc.), sharing information. Slide libraries (such as those at Berkeley, Michigan, and MIT) are striving to make their collections available digitally and are working out the glitches in technology to make their collections thus more accessible. Someone needs to step forward to help make sure we do not duplicate these digital efforts. Many possibilities exist for "trades" of digital materials so that libraries can spend their limited resources to enlarge the scope of documentation, so that more different things are kept and managed.
Libraries are also providing new services to students, staff, professors, and the community. Interdisciplinary electronic classrooms, seminar rooms with computer tools to encourage collaboration, and high-tech teaching theaters are becoming part of a library's domain. Course curricula, school events, and class evaluations are provided on-line. There is a continuation and expansion of the role of the library in teaching people how to access information at other places. Academics are not the only users. Architects will depend upon local university resources to augment their own collections. As the community becomes more empowered to change its built environment, there will be a need to assist, inform, and teach community members to access and apply architectural technology.
Architecture librarians will ultimately become some of the map builders on the information superhighway.
REFERENCE
Ref.1: Karen Kensek and Douglas Noble Software for Architects: The Guide to Computer Applications for the Architecture Profession (Los Angeles: The Center of Architectural Technology, 1992). This guidebook lists over 400 products intended for use in the architecture profession, and the authors are aware that they did not uncover many other products that they have since learned about.
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