While recent decades have seen more information recorded than any other era, the potential for losing this information is now greater than ever. This prospect is of great concern to archivists, who are charged with preserving vital records and documents indefinitely. One archivist notes that while the quantity of material being saved but most color photographs become unstable within 40 years, and videotapes last only about 20 years.
Computer technology would seem to offer archivists an answer, as maps, photographs, films, videotapes, and all forms of printed material may now be transferred to and stored electronically on computer disks or tape, occupying very little space. But as the pace of technological change increases, so too does the speed with which reluctant to become dependent on ever-changing computer technology, they are also quickly running out of time.
Even if viable storage systems are developed—new computer technologies are emerging that may soon provide archivists with the information storage durability they require—decisions about what to keep and what to discard will have to be made quickly, as materials recorded on conventional media continue to deteriorate. Ideally, these decisions should be informed virtually impossible for archivists to sort the essential from the dispensable in time to save it.
What this question is testing
Your task
Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.
Common trap
Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.
Winning move
Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.
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