Preserving Digital Memories

Amanda Stone and Jessica DameSouth Carolina State LibraryMay 16, 2014

PERSONAL DIGITAL ARCHIVING

Introduction“Our photo albums, letters, home movies and paper documents are a vital link to the past. Personal information we create today has the same value. The only difference is that much of it is now digital. Chances are that you want to keep some digital photos, email and other files so that you—and your family—can look at them in the future.”

• Library of Congress Video• Paper Documents• Digital Documents• Email• Social Media, Blogs, Websites• Digital Estate Plan• Personal Archiving Day

4 Simple Steps• Identify everything to be saved. • Gather in one place such as a folder on your computer

• Decide what to keep.• Decide what is worth keeping and discard/delete the rest

• Organize the files.• Organize in a meaningful, consistent way

• Store in multiple locations.• Choose at least 2 formats. No storage device is 100% reliable

Paper Documents & Photographs• Identify print documents and photographs. • Attics, basements, closets, boxes, drawers, etc.

• Decide what is most important. • Select what is important and should be scanned

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons

Paper Documents & Photographs• Scan and organize documents and photographs.• Home scanner, local library• Save to computer • Name files • Example file name: LasVegas_2014.jpg or Libris-2014.jpg• Save as TIFF (when able) and JPEG

• Store originals in safe environment. • Central location in the home • Away from light• Cool and dry environment • Acid-free enclosure

Containerstore.com

Digital Documents & Photographs • Identify digital documents and photographs.• Computer files, email, cellphone, social media, CDs, flash

drives, floppy (?!!)• Save all items to folder on your computer for organizing

• Decide what is most important.• Select the best images, important documents, etc.

flickr.com community.comicbookresourses.com

Digital Documents & Photographs• Organize the files.• Give individual photos descriptive file names • Create a directory/folder structure on your computer • Example file name: LasVegas_2014.jpg or 01-Libris-2014.jpg• Store them in different places. • Make at least two copies of your selected photos—more copies

are better• One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other

copies on separate media such as portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage • Check your photos at least once a year to make sure you can

access them.• Create new media copies every five years or when necessary

to avoid data loss

Email• Archiving email can be a challenge.• Email can live:• Locally on your computer• Remotely on your email host’s website

• Each email program works differently for backup copies!• Export the selected messages• If saving a few messages, you can use the “save as” command

in your email browser or software program to export them as individual files.

• If saving many e-mails, investigate automatically exporting them using the email program.

• If possible, save as text files (.txt)• Email backups will not save the file attachments

Email Examples• Gmail/ Google Accounts• Data tool allows you to download a copy of your data from 18

Google products, including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Youtube, Bookmarks• Mail is in MBOX format

Email Examples• Outlook• Several options: • backup .pst file

• AutoArchive feature

• Import & Export wizard

Social Media, Websites, & Blogs• Identify where you have your digital document files • Locate all your content on the Web, including personal

websites and social media sites and services. • Be sure to include current information as well as any older

(archived) content.

• Decide which information has long-term value • Pick the information that you feel is

especially important. • You can pick individual pieces of

information or you can select whole pages

or websites.

Social Media, Websites, & Blogs• Export the selected information • If saving a limited amount of information, you can use the

“save as” command in your web browser to export the website as individual files. • If saving entire pages or sites, check into automatically

exporting them as a series of linked files. • Save metadata for your web content information, such as site

name or date created.

• Organize the information • Give individual files descriptive file names. • Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the

saved information. • Write a brief summary of the directory structure and its files.

Social Media Examples• Twitter• You can request your Twitter archive

• Facebook• Download Your Info

•Most blog software and social media sites have export or archiving functions

Where to Save Digital Content • Physical storage• CDs/DVDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives • Careful handling, stable/moderate temp and humidity, proper

labeling, disaster prevention will all extend life of physical media

• Cloud storage• File hosting services online• Amazon Cloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud• Example: Amazon Cloud Drive: 5 GB free, 20 GB-$10/year 200

GB-$100/year• Wikipedia comparison of file hosting services

Where to Save Digital Content •Make copies and manage them in different places • Make at least two copies of your selected information—more

copies are better. • One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other

copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. • Store copies in different locations that are as physically far

apart as practical. If disaster strikes one location, the other copy of your important web content in the other place should be safe. • Put a copy of the summary description with your important

papers in a secure location. • Check your saved files at least once a year to make sure you

can read them. • Create new media copies every five years or when necessary

to avoid data loss.

Digital Estate Plan• Consider digital assets when creating a will.• Provide instruction on how your want your digital archive maintained/accessed. • Keep a thorough and up-to-date list of passwords, computers, external drives, etc.• The Digital Beyond • Types of digital assets to include:• Documents, images• Financial and merchant accounts• Emails, blogs, social media• Online storage accounts

Personal Archiving Day• Library event held to provide basic guidance to community about preserving personal and family memories.• Examples: Richland and Clemson • Library of Congress offers a kit! • How to plan, organize, and publicize• Suggested handouts, videos, and links to other resources

Images from Rooted in Family event hosted by Clemson at Richland

Digitization in a Box• New project from the State Library• Public libraries can borrow scanning equipment, laptop, and software from the State Library to start a new digitization project• Loaned for 2 months• On-site training and set-up• Collections will be available through the South Carolina Digital Library & Digital Public Library of America

Four children using the Lexington County Library bookmobile, South Carolina (Bookmobiles Collection, South Carolina State Library)

Further Information• Personal Archiving – Library of Congressdigitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/index.html

• Embedding metadata into digital images (tutorials)

photometadata.org/meta-tutorials

• Perspectives on Personal Digital Archivingdigitalpreservation.gov/documents/ebookpdf_march18.pdf

• Pop Quiz! • Amanda Stone• astone@statelibrary.sc.go

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• Jessica Dame• jdame@statelibrary.sc.go

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• Questions & Comments?

By Valerie McKeehan