A Beginner’s Guide to Preserving Digital Resources in Historic Environment Records Catherine Hardman and Kieron Niven Archaeology Data Service

Five steps to preservation heaven Back-up Migration Security Refreshment Documentation

Back-up

We keep multiple copies of the same data: CD original; copy on local server; copy at UofY computing service; copy at AHDS. Planned back–up strategy Grandparent, parent, child method How do we at the ADS do this?

Most Local Authorities are networked and will have their own back up facility Decide on a back-up strategy Store multiple copies of same data perhaps on CD – hard drive – network How you can do this in the SMR…

But… Beware of version control And, CDs are NOT stable in archival terms unless actively managed

Migration

We want our files accessible regardless of changes in software We want them to be future proof by changing into non–proprietary formats, using open source formats and keeping the files uncompressed Example File Formats

File Formats – Microsoft Word

File Formats – ASCII text

File Formats – RTF (rich text format) Looks the same as a Word.doc file RTF is significantly larger in file size… …as internally it’s just as complex as a Word.doc

File Formats – PDF Looks the same as a Word.doc file (formatting & layout) Small file size compared to Word BUT… Proprietary format Heavily encoded and compressed file.

File Formats – HTML

Easy-to-read mark-up Platform and software independent Also… Small file size

Security

Virus checking before archiving Who has the right to move/migrate/correcting errors Do we have the appropriate licences/copyright and have we addressed rights management issues How do we keep our data secure?

File Signatures ADS | 22/09/ :12:05 | /adsdata/smr_day/cxtrep01.doc | | 9ba163c51026e0dc12b089f0c259eb13 ADS | 22/09/ :12:05 | /adsdata/smr_day/cxtrep01.html | | e c7f82dddde019631d266a004 ADS | 22/09/ :12:05 | /adsdata/smr_day/cxtrep01.pdf | | 2ef3300f071d3c4bf6f8fe66936e3b50 ADS | 22/09/ :12:05 | /adsdata/smr_day/cxtrep01.rtf | | 0a75228b56a46110c2fb80b7d131339f ADS | 22/09/ :12:05 | /adsdata/smr_day/cxtrep01.txt | | 1b712ed091c1e71a8af979446a11cdae

Refreshment

For data which hasn’t been migrated we look at refreshment… Example – CAD files To make this easier we hold data in file type folders and use batch conversions Don’t forget the media issue. Refreshment

AutoCAD Version History Version 1.0 (Release 1) – December 1982 Version 1.2 (Release 2) – April 1983 Version 1.3 (Release 3) – August 1983 Version 1.4 (Release 4) - October 1983 Version 2.0 (Release 5) – October 1984 Version 2.1 (Release 6) – May 1985 Version 2.5 (Release 7) – June 1986 Version 2.6 (Release 8) – April 1987 Release 9 – September 1987 Release 10 – October 1988 Release 11 – October 1990 Release 12 – June 1992 Release 13 – November 1994 Release 14 – February 1997 AutoCAD 2000 – March 1999 AutoCAD 2000i – July 2000 AutoCAD June 2001 AutoCAD 2004 – March 2003 AutoCAD 2005 – March 2004

Documentation (& metadata)

Documentation is held in an accessions database We record, number of files, file type,conversion/migration history, who delivered them…where they are Documentation with the deposit (codes, how files created) What sort of things do we want?

Collections Management Database

There is no point undertaking archiving unless you can find the data again Resource discovery metadata File naming conventions Example Documentation (& metadata)

1.Policy on collections 2.Guidelines for depositors 3.Preservation procedures 4.Copyright 5.Contact ADS for help If you are going to do it: