Download - Keeping Your Digital Works Alive
Keeping Your Digital Works Alive
December 13, 2013Alabama Digital Humanities Center
Jody L. [email protected]
Overview• Challenges• Needs• Solutions• Resources!
Hardware keeps changing!• Computer upgrades• Where’s that floppy insert?• Wait, I use a Mac now… (or an
iphone?)
Challenges
Software keeps changing!• Windows 95 to 98 to 2000 to XP to…• Which version of Word was that?• They stopped making this software…
Challenges
File Formats keep changing!• Huh? My computer can’t open this!• Can anything open my files now?• It doesn’t look right. What happened?
Challenges
Media has issues!• CD, DVD bit loss within 3 years• Flash drives fail much more quickly• Hard drives crash• Cloud storage is not secure or
guaranteed
Challenges
What do we really need?
• Access!• Usability!
Needs
Requirements for access and use:• How do I find it?• How do I know what it is?• How do I know how to open it?
Needs
Selecting Content• Focus on what you REALLY need
to keep• Find out what it takes to manage
those types of content • Be realistic!
Solutions
Selecting Formats• Text:
– PDF/A, XML, Open Office XML, UTF-8 or ASCII text
• Images: – TIFF, JP2, PDF/A (or X), PNG
• Sound: – WAVE, FLAC
• Video: – MPEG-2, MPEG-4
Solutions
Preparation for Reuse• Metadata:
– description!• File naming:
– useful & consistent• Organization:
– categorize, document, group like content
Solutions
Storage & Backups• External Hard drive(s)• Multiple copies in multiple places• Using the cloud• Update, update, update
Solutions
Regular Reviews!• Check those files!
– Corrupt?– Format still supported?– Hardware/software going out of date?
Solutions
Migrating Content• What is the most important aspect?
– Text? Image? Audio?• What form do you need it in?• Find a converter• Test first; and review afterwards• Keep the original!
Solutions
Resources
Recommendations for Authors and Creators (from UA Libraries Digital Services):
http://tinyurl.com/au5oz8u
Resources