Slides from my talk at the Winchester (MA) Historical Society on April 10, 2014. The presentation covered practical tips for preserving personal digital photos and documents.

1. Keeping Memories Alive
Preserving Your Family’s Digital Legacy
Winchester Historical Society
April 10, 2014
Helen K. Bailey
Fellow for Digital Curation and Preservation
MIT Libraries

2. Digital is forever!
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3. Everyday Loss
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4. Disasters
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5. Security and Privacy
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6. Business Failure
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7. Obsolescence
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Compfight cc
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Compfight cc
Computer, circa 1980 Computer, circa 2010
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8. Bit Rot
• Find a picture, or make one of 1’s and 0’s turning into junk
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9. Photo Credit: Sarabbit via Compfight cc 9

10. Information Overload
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11. Life Cycle Model
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12. Life Cycle Model (modified)
Create
Gather
Select
Process
Organize
Store
Maintain
Review
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13. Digital items of concern:
VideosPhotographs Documents
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14. Creating
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15. Creating
File format decisions:
• Open is better than closed
• Uncompressed is better than compressed
• Long-lived is better than new-and-untested
• Common is better than unfamiliar
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16. Creating
Media Type Format Open vs.
Closed
Compressed
vs.
Uncompressed
Been Around
Since…
Popularity
Image JPEG
TIFF
Open
Proprietary
Compressed
Uncompressed
1992
1986
Very common
Common
Audio MP3
WAVE
Open
Proprietary*
Compressed
Depends**
1993
1991
Very common
Common
Video MP4
AVI
Open
Proprietary*
Compressed
Depends**
2001
1992
Very common
Common
Word
Processing
DOC
ODF
Closed
Open
Uncompressed
Uncompressed
1983
2005
Very common
Less common
eBook ePub
AZW (Kindle)
Open
Proprietary*
Compressed
Compressed
2007
2007
Common
Common
* Proprietary doesn’t necessarily mean closed, but it does mean it’s owned by a
private company.
** Audio and video formats are usually wrappers that can contain either
compressed or uncompressed encodings of the content.
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17. Creating
vs.
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18. Gathering
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19. Gathering
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20. Gathering
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21. Selecting
?
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22. Selecting
Files to keep:
• Unique, irreplaceable files
• Files that constitute a personal record
• Files you will want to refer back to or use again
• Files you created and own
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23. Selecting
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24. Processing
• Reformat?
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25. Processing
• Encrypt?
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26. Organizing
File naming:
• Keep it short
• Be descriptive, but not too descriptive
• Left to right – unique to general info
• Avoid spaces and special characters
“DSCN_0001.JPG”
vs.
“photo 2012 apple picking in Vermont with cousin Steve YAY!!!.jpg”
vs.
“001_2012_Vermont_trip.jpg”
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27. Organizing
• Directory Structure:
• Easy to understand
• Representative of content
• Think about 10-years-from-now you, not current-you
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28. Organizing
• Tagging / embedding information (metadata):
• Adds meaning beyond file names
• Adds to search capability, especially for non-textual
items (photos, video)
• May be more important to add metadata to certain
formats (photographs)
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29. Organizing
• Common tags:
• Dates
• Subjects
• Location (GPS)
• Purpose
• Version
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30. Organizing
• A few tagging tools (these all embed metadata):
• Adobe Bridge
• Apple iPhoto
• Windows Photo Gallery
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31. Storing
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32. Storing
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3
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33. Storing
• Factors for choosing storage options include:
• Cost and time
• Quantity (size and number of files)
• Expertise (skills required to manage)
• Ready access vs. “archive”
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34. Storing
• Hard disk drives
(spinning disk)
• Inexpensive per
amount of storage
• Requires manual
copying/maintenance
• Great for both files and complete system backup
• Less reliable than flash storage
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35. Storing
• Solid State Drives
(flash memory):
• More expensive per
amount of storage
• Easier to transport
• Variable sizes and housing
• More reliable than spinning disk
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36. Storing
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37. Storing
• Cloud storage:
• Cost varies by service provider
• Often automatic backup/updating
process, which reduces manual
time
• Less privacy; read terms of service!
• Dependence on a third party
(what happens to your content if they go out of business?)
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38. Maintaining
• Retrieve and spot check
• Use, use, use!
• Refresh external storage media roughly every 5 years
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39. Reviewing
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40. Preserved!
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41. Thank you! Questions?
• hbailey@mit.edu
• http://bitsandpages.wordpress.com/
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