http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15800263
Although CD-ROM media have been touted as having lifespans in decades, as someone trained in librarianship, I have been a mite skeptical. Over the past year, some rather alarming evidence of CD fragility has come to light, and this issue of the "Langa Letter" [a listserv well worth paying for in its 'Premium Edition', incidentally] discusses the problem in detail with a number of informative links.
Once conclusion which dovetails strongly with my basic take on the situation is that some CD labels are destructive, though to my surprise, permanent markers, which I have always considered a sort of CD poison, are entirely OK.
Given the educational use of CDs for archival information, and especially the trend to move data from old [yet still working] magnetic media to CDs, this is a practical issue which needs careful examination, and the referenced URL is an excellent place to start.
Posted by jho at November 4, 2003 08:37 AM