1. Personal Digital Archiving
Elizabeth tietjen
Digital publishing services
September 20, 2016

2. photos audio video email docs websites
Print family photos
Research materials
financial documents

3. 5 questions to ask yourself…
Where is your information?
What is most important to you?
Are you organized? Could someone else tell?
Do you have backups?
How easily can you access, move, and share your files?

4. storage
Know the trade-offs between different types…

5. What exactly is “the cloud”?
Dropbox
Apple iCloud
Google Drive
Servers

6. Storage considerations…
Location – local drive or cloud?
Import/export and sharing
Cloud requires internet access!
How easily can you access, move, and share your files?
Space
How well does it integrate with other platforms you use?
Often a certain amount is gratis, with additional buy-up options
Mobile support
Supported file types
Security and privacy
Media file quality
Cost
Many platforms compress uploaded media
Backups!
Features
Automated?
Editing tools

7. Data security Research data and student records (FERPA)…
Encryption: the conversion of digital data into a code that can only be de-coded by a person or system with the key
There are different levels
Many cloud storage services do not meet the standards or requirements for secure data management
Harvard: catalyst.harvard.edu
An Investigator’s Guide to Research Data Management Practices
Harvard Catalyst Data Privacy and Security Planning Checklist
University of Michigan:
Sensitive Data Guide
Safely Use Sensitive Data
Safely Use the Cloud

8. General rules of thumb…
Keep primary copies and original media files on your own computer or hard drive
Use cloud storage for backups and derivatives
3-2-1 Rule
3 copies
2 in different platforms
1 in a different location
Technology obsolescence and long-term preservation
Migrate your files every 5-7 years to avoid losing your data

9. A quick comparison… Your computer (drive) Google Drive Dropbox
Location: local drive
Space: unlimited!
Sharing: manual sharing to any platform
Cost: $50-100/1TB
Location: cloud
Space: 15GB free, with buy-up options
Sharing: albums with other Google users, links, Google+, Facebook, Twitter
Cost: free, with space buy-up options
Location: cloud
Space: 2GB free, with buy-up options
Sharing:
Cost: free, with space buy-up options

10. A quick comparison (photos)…
Google Photos
Apple Photos
Facebook
Location: cloud
Space: unlimited high-quality photos OR use Google account storage (15GB free, with buy-up option)
File quality: high-quality or original
Sharing: albums with other Google users, links, Google+, Facebook, Twitter
Cost: free, with space/quality buy-up options
Location: local drive and/or iCloud
Space: local drive capacity OR us iCloud account storage (5GB free, with buy-up option
File quality: original
Sharing: iCloud, , message, AirDrop, Notes, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr
Cost: free, with space buy-up options
Location: cloud
Space: unlimited
File quality: compressed, anything over 100KB or outside their standard sizes - 720px, 960px, 2048px (width)
Sharing: restricted to FB platform (albums, posts, messages, etc.), downloading
Cost: free

11. organization & description
…it’s all about finding things later.

12. Imagine that you’re trying to find something again in 5 years or that someone else is trying to find something in your files…
Why will you be looking for these files again?
What information would be most helpful for finding a specific file?

13. Naming your files Be consistent!
Choose the most important 2-3 types of information to include in your file names
E.g. documents: Author_Title_Date.doc
E.g. photos: Name_Location_Date.jpg
Avoid spaces and special characters – some software won’t recognize file names with spaces
Other options include
Underscores, e.g. file_name.doc
Dashes, e.g. file-name.doc
No separation, e.g. filename.doc
“CamelCase”, e.g. FileName.doc
Date formatting tip
YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD, e.g or
Allows you to easily sort your files chronologically

14. Describing your files
You can embed additional descriptive information into the file itself (Photoshop)
Data stays with the file and is viewable in other platforms
Most platforms also include their own descriptive fields, but these may not be viewable if you move the file into another platform
Adding tags can help you group your files

15. example
ORGANIZING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL FILES…

16. RefWorks Refworks Easily import citations from databases
Organize them into folders (you can nest them!)
E.g. Create a folder for a paper and create sub-folders for sub-categories of your research
Automatically create a bibliography in any style

17. example
Digitizing print family photos for a slideshow…

18. File naming Naming convention
Want to be able to find specific photos to share with family members and use in holiday cards, event invitations, etc.
The people in the photos and dates that the photos were taken will be most useful
INITIALS_short_description_date.jpg

19. Embedding metadata Photoshop File > File Info
data is embedded into the file and viewable in other platforms
Apple Photos

20. Exporting metadata Apple Photos
You may have the option to include metadata when you export a file
For groups of photos, you may also be able to automatically add a prefix to each photo
Photos of my grandma and me, so I used our initials:
PM_ET_
File names will be exported as:
PM_ET_1,jpg
PM_ET_2.jpg
etc.

21. File conversion…
Using the software that you are converting to and from is always the best option
Look for Export or Save As options in whatever software you’re using
Not perfect
Third-party conversion software available online is unlikely to work well – don’t pay for it!
Other work-arounds possible…

22. Getting started…
Start simply, with a rough sort of your information at a high-level
You can refine your organization in iterations
Break things into chunks and prioritize
Be realistic with your time
Nothing is perfect and there’s no one right way to do it!

23. Resources
The Library!
MediaHub
High-resolution scanners
Media management and editing software
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Automatic Optical Character Recognition (OCR) enables you to search the text in your scan
Allows you to edit text
Allows you to convert to Microsoft Word, Excel, or PPT
Photo editing tools (Photoshop, iPhoto, GIMP)
Digital Publishing Services is happy to provide consultation on storage, scanning and digitization, and records management
Library of Congress: digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving

24. Questions? Elizabeth Tietjen, Digital Publishing Services