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ROT
continued from page 1A
documents and series of photo
maps. Rather than use CDs, Kelly
said that when he can't put the
largest series on hard drive he uses
the "mass storage unit," a massive
hard drive for library archives.
Raenie Kane buys and sells used
CDs for I he House of Records, a
music store located at 258 E. 13th
Ave. in Eugene. Kane said she had
never heard of the CD rot phenome
non, but identified the symptoms of
CD rot as commonplace in the CDs
customers try to sell to the store.
"In the 13 years I've been buying
and selling CDs, I've never seen
holes in the surface of the silver,"
Kane said. "I've seen the clouding
though, but I've always attributed
that to a manufacturers defect, not
age, but it certainly ruins the CD."
The structure of a CD is essentially
a data sandwich. A data-carrying lay
er is placed between a layer of plas
tic on the bottom and lacquer and a
label on the top, according to Kane.
In manufactured CDs, the data car
rying layer is a slice of aluminum,
while in writable CDs made for use
with a home CD burner, the data
layer is made up of a dye that is
modified by the burners.
Jerry Hartke, who runs Media Sci
ences, Inc., a Marlborough, Mass,
laboratory that tests CDs, said if the
manufacturer applied the lacquer
improperly, air can penetrate and
oxidize the aluminum, eating it up
much like iron rusts in air, according
to a May 6 article from The Associat
ed Press. Factors such as temperature
fluctuations can also weaken the
discs' structure causing the layers to
pull apart.
Burned writable CDs may have an
even shorter lifespan according to
PC-Active, a Dutch personal
computer magazine. In a study of
different CD-R brands published in
August 2003, results showed CD-Rs
are unreadable in as little as two
years because the dyes in the CDs'
recording layer fade.
When the CD is made on a home
burner, the writing laser "burns" the
dye, which becomes dark, to represent
a "1" while a "0" is left blank. If the
dye fades, the reading laser perceives
an entirely empty disc of zeros.
CD rot is not likely to be a big
problem for users who take care of
their CDs, according to Hartke. It's
more common that discs are ren
dered unreadable by poor handling.
"If people treat these discs rather
harshly, or stack them, or allow them
to mb against each other, this very
fragile protective layer can be dis
turbed, allowing the atmosphere to
interact with that aluminum," he said.
Tyrone Dion works at the
CD/Game Exchange in Eugene,
which buys and sells secondhand
music. He said most people aren't
careful with their CDs.
"You know, I just chuck my CDs into
a big old pile and they get all scratched
so they don't live long enough to expe
rience the effects of deterioration,"
Dion said. "We see a lot more of the
media deterioration like scratches and
mishandling than we see the actual de
terioration of the (data)."
Kane said she also gets mishan
dled CDs.
"People are trying to sell us all
sorts of stuff," she said. "People are
trying to give us the dredge of their"
collections, so their CDs are not usu
ally in the best shape."
Contact the
business/science/technology reporter
at stevenneuman@dailyemerald.com.
GIFT
continued from page 1A
outreach to those who could benefit
from die materials.
"Now I'll be able to focus more on
the archives," she said, adding that her
former job requirements included
managing University records, such as
student and personnel files. "Records
management was a huge job."
The library will also be able to hire
a new employee to take on the records
management position, giving Briston
more time to collect materials.
The Solari family has provided sup
port for the University Libraries since
the late 1980s by contributing to the
Knight Library's expansion project,
creating an endowment for informa
tion technology and teaching, estab
lishing a faculty fellowship for library
staff members and funding an en
dowment for library instructional
services, according to the release.
The money counts toward the
University's Campaign Oregon:
Transforming Lives, a fundraising
initiative that aims to raise $600
million to support students, faculty,
programs and facilities.
Briston said the gift will provide the
means to educate those who are un
aware of the archive materials' diver
sity or their value to the community
and the state.
"1 have everything from the ridicu
lous to the sublime," she said. She
added that some of the memorabilia
she has collected and seen over her
two and a half years working at the
University are the "weirdest" out of
the materials.
"I don't know why I have a stuffed
iguana," she said. "But 1 have a
stuffed iguana."
An alumna also donated a cowbell
that was once used to heckle the Ore
gon State University crowds during
Civil War games, she said. But while
some materials have humorous his
torical value, others provide detailed
accounts of notable events.
For example, Briston said there are
documents detailing how the Univer
sity came to be established as the first
public institution of higher education
in the state.
"All of these materials are unique,"
she said.
Other items include the final
screenplay draft of "Animal House,"
student dissertations and theses and a
collection of historical photographs.
Briston said there is even a photo of
the University's first day of classes.
Archive materials are located in the
Knight Library, Fenton Hall and the
Baker Downtown Center. The more
than 12,000 boxes of material occupy
over 19,000 linear feet of space.
Briston said the materials provide
students, faculty and community
members many research opportuni
ties. She said students in the Clark
Honors College are using the presi
dential office records and journalism
students have used the photo archives
to supplement documentaries.
"There's lots of potential for use,"
she said.
University Librarian Deborah
Carver said the archives don't just
track the University's past but also
show trends in higher education
throughout history.
"I think there's all sorts of lessons to
be learned from the University's past, "
she said.
Briston said she hopes better ac
cessibility will increase interest in
the collection.
"I want to make sure everybody
knows what I know," she said.
Contact the higher education/student
life/student affairs reporter
at chelseaduncan@dailyemerald.com.
You’re always close to campus.
> www.dailyenierald.com