title: Paradox in Paradox Database
creators: Pawel Jaskulski
abstract: Paradox in Paradox Database - Hybrid Asset Preservation
  
  In November 2023 the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (PMC) acquired a unique digital resource on English stained glass and church architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, created by Dr Michael Kerney (1934–2022), an acknowledged authority on the subject. The database was created with Paradox system and stored locally on a personal laptop IBM ThinkPad R40e, a model released by IBM in October 2003 and discontinued year after in October 2004. The database has never had a front-end. Access to data was provided by paper print outs sent by Michael by mail. Although archival science dictates that we should always preserve the records in the way they were used this approach will not serve well our current archive community. We are now considering different ways of preserving the datasets: 
  
   - Reverse engineering approach – aimed at preserving the data and the way on which it was accessed. Is it important to preserve the way the data was used? The database has never had a front-end. Access to data was provided by paper print outs.
   - Content-centred approach – focus on content of the tables and migration of data into open format (CSV, evaluate SIARD). Provide access to data by publishing the datasets or developing a new access system.
keywords: approaches to preservation start 2 preserve