While rummaging through my box of 20 years of accumulated spare cables, I found some random unmarked floppy disks. I have no idea what's on them, and no longer have any computers with a floppy drive.
I pondered what might be on the disks, and tried to brainstorm ways I might get at a floppy drive. I wondered whether you can rent an external floppy drive. There doesn't
appear to be any such thing. They're fairly cheap to buy, but
I'd only need it for a few minutes to read and possibly copy the contents of the disks, and then I'd be done with it forever.
Then I wondered if the library computers still have floppy drives. Doubtful. Apart from the fact that floppy disks haven't been in common use for quite a while, I doubt the library wants to make it easy for people to run random programs on their computers.
Then I realized, this is a problem that the library could solve by making external media readers available to borrow - floppy drives, CD drives, maybe even cassette players and record players that can be plugged into computers to convert music to MP3s, if such a thing exists.
Surely I'm not the only one with some obsolete media that I'm no longer equipped to read or back up. Surely I'm not the only one who just needs a floppy drive briefly, with no need to own one.
An external USB floppy drive costs less than the retail price of a hardcover book, so it seems like the library should be able to afford a few to lend out. And if the library lends me a USB drive that I plug into my own computer, my computer bears the risk of whatever the contents of my mystery disks might be - the library's disk drive is just a conduit.
Q: But if you let people borrow electronic equipment, they might wreck it!
A: Yes, just like if you let people borrow books, they might wreck them! I suspect libraries are accustomed to budgeting for eventual wear and tear on their items.
Part of the library's mission statement is to provide universal access to a broad range of information. Perhaps that could include the information that we have stored on outdated media?
1 comment:
Many libraries lend laptops, tablets, and external CD drives, and most either sell for $1 or give away USB sticks. Some libraries have one external CD drive that can be used with a public-use computer. I would think that Toronto PL has something like this going on.
It's hard for libraries to keep outdated equipment -- space is so limited. But library workers are also notorious hoarders (not a good thing) and I'm sure there are libraries somewhere with external floppy drives in a back room, waiting for a customer who needs one. How one would find this... I do not know. It would be a pretty random connection, speaking to a library worker who knows who and where has it.
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