Computer help: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents?
- 5/1/09 10:39 AM
Obsolete media? Been there...
by pepoluan - 5/3/09 1:00 AM In reply to: A couple of minor quibbles by rbsjrxI agree about obsolete media...
Luckily I have been in the habit of migrating my files from older media to the "best & brightest" newest media available.
Just remember to not keep all your eggs in one basket.
Good Question...indeed, and good answer!
by tobebo89 - 5/1/09 8:09 PM In reply to: Damn Good Question by Artist3dPaul - (who happens to work with digital archiving!)
I was reading along and saying, Hmm mmm, yeah, uh huh, yea; then I get to your sig line and crack up. Of course, I know not what other's here are trained for, or what they may or may not know in an "expertise" kind of way. But my money is on your advice.
Thanks for taking the time. I'm probably doing the absolute worst thing, saving all my files to USB Drives, 8mb each. They are just so handy...
In the long run, I want my great grandchildren to know what I thought; I want them to see photographs 4 to 5 generations back. I assume acid free paper for printing photos and for storing them is still the industry standard as far as paper archiving is concerned.
Thanks again for your expertise.
Kathie
PhD candidate, Psychology
FUTURE PROOFING DIGITALLY ARCHIVED DOCUMENTS
by chas888ca - 4/25/09 10:45 PM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is one relatively certain way to future proof Digitally Archived Documents: Hard Printed Copies using acid free paper, best archivable inks, a superior printer and final storaged in a controlled safe environment.
The best digital archiving systems suffer from several long term fatal faults: unproven real time testing,the dead certainty that recording, reading and storage devices and their operating systems are bound to quickly become obsolete and the need to re-record archives to new unproven technologies. Hard copies cannot be 100% guaranteed, but real time testing experience with the ink and paper technologies is extensive.
I recently retreived 2 copies of library Fonds stored using old ink/paper technology ; one 90 and one 63 years old . I have in my home library a well used Bee Keeping book printed 230 years ago in Scotland and passed down through 7 generations to me; only the binding is new. I have nothing digitally recorded and readable more than 5 years old! Need I say more for all documents including photographs?
For more ephemeral audio and video recordings,I can only suggest constant copying to the newest best technologies from the best oldest available; however unrecognized incipient error is a dead certainty. Listening to old 76, 33 1/3, 16 1/2 or cylinder music from 1905 or watching modern videos suggests that old and voluminous does not necessarily mean worthwhile. Sometimes the "Arts" are best when newly interpreted by a modern artist or just left to moulder!
I hope this is opinion assists you, but please recognize that a better answer will exist tomorrow.
Old audio recordings are superior in performance and sound
by SeagoatLeo - 5/1/09 5:56 PM In reply to: FUTURE PROOFING DIGITALLY ARCHIVED DOCUMENTS by chas888caComments regarding LPs and tape are just dumb as they have proven to be superior to current digital recordings; hence, the great renewed interest in LP purchases and turntable/playback equipment. 78s and various size and speed recordings from the first half of the 20th century have many magnificent performances never to be duplicated. Many have been carefully remastered for LP and CDs although there is still a great thrill in hearing a correctly reproduced 78 (and especially great sounding LPs) from the orginal matrices.
Film has deteriorated much quicker than audio and must be preserved in some modern form. Luckily, DVD and video formats allow for superior preservation as well as playback ability (we will soon have a new HD format known as 4X, with four times the quality of HD, sufficient for historic film preservation).
Dumb is as dumb says!
by chas888ca - 5/1/09 8:54 PM In reply to: Old audio recordings are superior in performance and sound by SeagoatLeoWhen mature you may recognize that something even better than the digital data you replay today is being created right now and it too will be surpassed in the future. Look forward for the best and enjoyed it's occurence. Old digital data only deteriorates until it is a shadow memory of its original excellence.
But follow your own advice if you like. Miss out on future superior digital recordings . There are some few real golden oldies; it is a shame they deteriorate no matter what you do.
Thats life.!!
Make images of all media
by slappie - 4/26/09 9:16 AM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
For all the floppy disks you have, I suggest making images of them. Search for floppy image or the like and you will find many free programs that can do this. Then you will be able to store these on whatever media you choose. There are many virtual machines that can load and run these floppy images and install your word 1.0 software if you so choose (check out dosbox ,but there are many).
Lastly, keep at least two copies of everything on different and physically separate media.
How do you future proof your digitally archived document
by Mukeshkv - 4/26/09 10:29 AM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am also facing the same problem mentioned under the above mentioned topic. Kindly provide necessary information that will be fruitful for many of us. Regards..
Also kindly let me know that the Connecting cable from SMPS to SATA Hard disk frequently got loose and disconnected automatically. will there be any better connectors available.
Regards..
Mukesh Bagoriya
how to future proof digitally archived documents
by nyawade - 4/26/09 11:41 AM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Technology is always changing striving for better & more efficient ways. New formats for digital archiving will imerge with better and more efficient mode of digital archiving.
Therefore in order to future proof our digitally archived 'precious' information we must keep on upgrading our archives inline with new ways & modes for storage.
Edwin
What format will be used in 50 years?
by rodneo - 4/27/09 8:52 AM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The only sure fire document archival format that will definitely be around and usable in the sane format as today is PAPER. Just as it was 50 years ago.
If you were preparing a time capsule for 50 or 100 years form now who knows what digital format will be used and if it will be backwards compatible with PDFs, CDs, DVDs, etc. Paper or some print mechanism will still be good as it is in the ancient discoveries being made.
Just one geek's opinion.
RodneO
Simple Solution
by friarchuck - 4/27/09 10:17 AM In reply to: How do you future proof your digitally archived documents? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your question seems rather complicated, but it is one that I make my living off of. I am a CDIA+ (Certified Document Imaging Architec) Document Management Engineer, and I have researched this quite heavily. The answer is as simple as this:
For Documents, you need to store it in either PDF or TIFF format. I would utilize the TIFF format for long term storage, personally, as Adobe does change the PDF format on a regular basis. Thus far, they have done a wonderful job of maintaining backwards compatibility with previous versions, but I wouldn't bank on it in the long term. TIFF, on the other hand, is an open specification that has changed little since the early 90's, and is the safest bet for long term readability. It is also the preferred format of most document management systems, as there is little "fluff" in the format, and OCR engines perform quite well on it.
For images, I would consider using BMP (bitmap) format. It has little compression, so it does take up a lot of space, but it is also an extremely stable file format and easily convertible into other formats. If size is a concern, go with JPG, but since storage is cheap in today's market, I would avoid that if possible.
For audio, I would recommend storing them in WAV (wave) format, as this is the base format for all others. Like BMP, WAV files have no compression, so they can take up a lot of space, but I am working under the assumption that space isn't the concern, as much as readability in the future.
Video is the killer here, as video is relatively new, and the formats seem to change on a regular basis. Thus far, it seems like the most stable format is AVI, but MPEG (currently at MPEG-4, I believe), also seems to be fairly stable. I would try to stay away from WMV formats, as Microsoft is the king of changing standards and killing backwards compatibility. If you don't believe me, try opening a Word 1.0 in Word 97 or later, they can't even read their own format.
The secret, in my opinion, is to use the base file format, the one that all other formats are based on. If you do this, I think you can safely tuck information away for many years without a concern of readability. As to what media to use, that is a serious concern, and the only answer to that is to keep changing the storage media whenever the latest and greatest comes around. I would seriously consider storing on more than one form of media. For instance, store it on an Optical media, such as DVD, and store it on a magnetic based media, such as an external HDD. I would try to find a relatively safe storage place for both, that was out of sunlight and away from any EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) sources, as the sunlight is noted to kill optical, and the EMF will kill Magnetic. Good luck!
Great answers
by irisheyes720 - 5/1/09 7:33 PM In reply to: Simple Solution by friarchuckThanks for sharing your expertise.
Saving Your Archives For Posterity
by giuocco - 5/1/09 8:53 PM In reply to: Great answers by irisheyes720As one who in 1984 thought the 5 1/4 inch floppy was here to stay, I have learned that you have to convert your files to the newer technology as it evolves. There is usually some backward compatability during the step by step changes. It is a continuing process. There is no maagic solution other than that.
And a legacy...
by pepoluan - 5/3/09 1:01 AM In reply to: Saving Your Archives For Posterity by giuocco... don't forget to train at least a person in each generation to perform media-migration 
Old standards never die
by scottwilkins - 5/2/09 5:26 AM In reply to: Simple Solution by friarchuckYour "simple solution" has quite a few bugs. First, old standards never die. There is rare cases where they do, but that's only been to standards that were never used very highly.
I'd stick to PDF, PNG (or jpg)and MPG. They will always be readable, no matter how far into the future you go. The other older standards of TIFF, BMP are too problematic and very poor on storage space. You'll eat up to between 10 to 100 times the storage for these formats. Not good by any standard today or in the future. Plus the closer to stay to the current standard, the more likely you'll be able to use them in the future too.
Response to Old Standards
by domirr - 5/2/09 6:56 AM In reply to: Old standards never die by scottwilkinsI'm curious how TIFF and BMP are problematic, outside of the storage space issue (which the Simple Solution author addressed as one that will happen and in light of today's capacities may not necessarily be a hindrance). On scanned documents I use TIFF (even for pictures) as I preserve the image without any compression. This way if I need to make a .JPG for other uses (pictures on a phone, website, the newer picture frames using today's popular formats) I can do so from the TIFF. On scanning a text document saved in TIFF I am able to use optical character recognition to input the text and correct as needed (do not forget that even original documents may have misspellings that are noted and need to be attributed when quoted with the notation "sic").
Note that even taking into account the amount of storage that these (and other) formats will consume storage capabilities have been increasing exponentially while also decreasing in price in a similar manner. Think of a 1 gigabyte hard drive in the early to mid 90's when a 1G hard drive was between $500-$1K (in my case it was around 1994) and today where 1 and 1.5 Terabytes that can be had under $200 and in some cases under $100 for such a drive. Early to mid 90's: $0.50-$1.00/megabyte; Current pricing: approxmiately $0.10/gigabyte (1,000 gigabytes=1 terabyte (will probably go down in price with larger drives). The point of this paragraph is to illustrate that storage is not necessarily an issue especially when storing data that is to be preserved in a format that is accessible and readable in the future (be mindful of the various discussions of preservation and backup in this thread.)
My observations and $0.02 worth of information.
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