1. Protecting Your Digital Records Christian Skipper Appraisal Archivist Maryland State Archives ________________________

2. Common Digital Records Photographs Email Word Documents Family Histories Financial Records Music Video

3. Consider Scope 1.Permanent 2.Non-Permanent

4. Scope: Permanent Duplication of form Must be able to upgrade in the future Examples: –Photographs –Family videos –Diplomas Scanning Specs: –Full Color –Up to 600dpi –Archival Formats

5. Scope: Non-Permanent Content is more important than appearance Will not need to upgrade Examples: –Tax filings –Contracts –Leases Scanning Specs: –200dpi –Greyscale or Black and White –Not necessarily archival formats

6. File Formats Photographs: TIFF, JPEG Video: MOV Audio: WAV, FLAC, SHN Text: PDF, PDF/A, TXT Email: EML, TXT, PDF

7. Software Scanning –Do not spend too much money: consider open-source –Consider exportability –General rule: do not depend on complex management software

8. Avoiding the Crash Do not keep all of your records in one place Consider a portable hard drive Keep your copies identical Back-up regularly