The archivist preserving decaying floppy disks
Summary
The article profiles Cambridge University Library archivist Leontien Talboom and her collaborations with retro computing enthusiasts to image and preserve data from aging floppy disks. It highlights the challenges of multiple disk formats, magnetic decay, and the need for specialized hardware, underscoring the risk of a digital dark age if such history is not saved. The piece also discusses collaborative workflows and a preservation guide that aims to help others rescue data from obsolete media.