Name: Crystal Stephenson

Course: LIS6773 Digital Curation

Assignment: Preservation Planning
Due Date: April 18, 2019
“Personal Archiving and Preservation Planning for Digital Memories”
Preservation planning is a proactive process of mapping out a strategy to ensure the long-

term access to digital objects in usable format by following the four essential stages of defining

requirements, evaluating alternatives, considering results, and building a plan of action. This

paper will examine the preservation methods and file migration pathways identified for the

continued preservation of three generalized categories of digital objects, including digital photos,

documents, and select online resources, such as emails and Facebook data, followed by a brief

review of the free Open Source software, FreeFileSync, as an alternative for synchronization of

files in current versions. Since no recovery efforts or digital forensics software is required, this

will be a streamlined and simplified process of backing up files and photos deemed personally

necessary for preservation.

The first step in preservation planning is to identify the digital objects I wish to preserve.

After careful review, I have selected digital photos currently stored on my external hard drive,

documents primarily saved in MS Word, and a collection of some emails and Facebook data I

would like to preserve for the time being. Since none of the digital objects I want to preserve

exist on obsolete media, but rather, stored on my external hard drive and current MacBook Pro, I

will not require any digital forensics methods or software to recovery inaccessible files.
While comparing the most common preservation methods and alternatives, the one best

suited for my specific needs is migration. Migration, according to Oliver and Harvey, “refers to

transferring digital materials from one technology (one generation of hardware or software) to

another, or from one format to another, to preserve the intellectual content and retain the ability

for users to retrieve, display, and otherwise use them” (2016, p. 166). In contrast to emulation,

migration “focuses on the content or properties of digital objects, and it attempts to maintain

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these over time by making them usable on new software and hardware, rather than focusing on

the technology by attempting to keep obsolete technology working or creating emulators” (p.

166). I am taking proactive steps to preserve my digital objects to ensure access in the future, but

I am not concerned with being able to use any obsolete media formats once they become

outdated. The goal is to migrate my digital objects from a variety of formats to others secured in

different locations, physically and digitally, to prevent potential issues of obsolescence in the

immediate future.
The list of file formats and data migration pathways are relatively short but varietal for

my personal needs. I do not have many existing Acrobat PDF files, but I do have a few Graphics

Interchange Formats (or .gif) and Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations (97-2003), while most of

my photos are in JPEG File Interchange Format and documents primarily saved in Microsoft

Word for Windows 97-2003. The preferred migration pathway for my .gif files is to Portable

Network Graphics (or .png) using the Stellent Image Export tool as identified on the PRONOM

database. Similarly, I have some Tagged Image File Formats (or .tiff) I would like to save and

migrate to .png as well. My few MS PowerPoint files will migrate to the open standard

Extensible Markup Language (or XML), while the majority of my files in MS Word format (i.e.

the proprietary .doc and .docx standards) will migrate to Acrobat PDF 1.4 via the Stellent PDF

Export tool best suited for preservation purposes. I have no OpenDocument Text, ZIP formats, or

WordPerfect files to preserve at this time, and any existing .txt files will remain in original

format.
I currently store a collective 80,000 photos in a variety of places, including the Cloud, my

iPhone, Google Photos, an external hard drive, and my current laptop. All locations and media

are accessible at this time and should not be difficult to collect, organize, and save in more secure

locations. Upon narrowing down and selecting the photos deemed highest priority for

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preservation, I will assign each one an individual, descriptive file name, including reference tags,

or photo metadata, which consist of keywords, locations, names, dates, or a combination of all of

the above. Afterwards, I will create a directory or folder structure on my current MacBook Pro to

file away my selected photos with a brief description. I plan to secure at least three copies to be

preserved in different digital and geographical locations. One copy of my photographs will

remain on my current laptop; a second copy is currently available on Google Photos but will later

be migrating to Flickr, which provides 1 TB of storage for free and has a solid track record of

remaining relevant; and a third copy will be saved on an external, portable hard drive. I will

proceed to narrow down my photos even further and save the most critical selections on optical

disks. Since photos “on write-once optical discs cannot be deleted by accident, cannot be

encrypted or infected by malware, and are unlikely to be stolen” (Schofield, 2018), discs are a

great way to store off-site in a different geographical location. As CDs and DVDs only store

between 720MB and 4.7MB of data respectively, I will invest in Blue-ray discs able to store

25GB on single-layer discs or 50GB on the dual-layer varieties. 20 dual-layer Blu-ray discs will

hold a terabyte, so it would require less than 20 discs for my entire photo collection and even less

if my collection is entirely narrowed down to select photos most important to me. Allegedly, the

Panasonic Archival Grade or Century Archival Grade Blue-ray discs claim to last for 50+ or

100+ years. Due to risks of disaster, like flooding or hurricanes, I generally keep my external

hard drive on a shelf in my desk, while I will store my optical disks in a locked, disaster-proof

safe box. I plan to review my formats every five years to circumvent issues of obsolescence or

media rot as well.

My digital records are primarily documents saved in MS Word. Much like my

photographs, I will identify the document files in their most recent versions I wish to save,

followed by assigning each their own descriptive file name, including specific keywords for

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identification and store them in a digital folder structure on my computer. Once again, I will

ensure that there are at least three copies of my documents saved in a variety of formats,

including the Cloud, an external hard drive, and online in a secure storage account, like Google,

which isn’t likely to become obsolete too soon. I will also print out physical copies as well as

narrow down a select few to transfer on to a USB pin drive, securing the paper copies in a

disaster-proof safe and the USB pin drive in another physical location. Again, I plan to review

my selected formats every five years.

As we have witnessed with AOL, email accounts and their platforms can expire or

dissolve over time. I currently have two email accounts I wish to preserve select emails from. I

will follow many of the same steps as outlined above, including exporting them to an MS Word

document format to save on my current laptop, consider automatically exporting them to an

email program, save messages in an open format, and saving the metadata for the emails, like

message “header” and other critical information. I will also print them out for physical storage in

a safe lockbox and preserve the emails in MS Word files on a USB pin drive.
Currently, Facebook allows you to download a copy of your information, including posts,

messages, and photos. You have the option to download all of your user content or select the

types of information and date ranges you wish to receive, which is provided in either an HTML

format that is easy to view, or a JSON format, which could allow another service to easily import

it. Once you’ve created a file, it will be available for download for a few days. I have followed

this process in the past for my messages, and upon receipt of the download, I copy and pasted

everything I wanted to preserve on a simple MS Word document saved to my computer. From

there I can follow the steps listed above for my document files.
I plan to use the free Open Source software, FreeFileSync, to manage backup copies of

my important files. Not only is this alternative cost-effective, the software is compatible with my

macOS and user-friendly, requiring no special knowledge to navigate. Essentially, rather than

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copy every file every time, “FreeFileSync determines the differences between a source and a

target folder and transfers only the minimum data needed.” According to the creator, Zenju,

“FreeFileSync is a graphical file synchronization and folder comparison tool” suited for anyone

who wants to back up their important files regularly. In the case of earlier versions of a particular

file or document, FreeFileSync alleviates concern by ensuring that recent versions of the files are

saved. Some of the unique features of this software that attracted me include synchronization of

folders on network shares, local drives, and mobile devices, as well as Google Drive cloud

storage. The software will also detect conflicts, compare files by content, process multiple

folders, provide fail-safe file copies preventing data corruption, include comprehensive and

detailed error reporting, supports cross-platform access, completely ad-free, never contains

malware or viruses, and both portable and local installation is available.

In conclusion, my preservation plan includes the migration of document files and digital

photos to at least three copies to be stored in different locations to ensure the long-term security

and access to what I have deemed most important. The primary method of preservation is

migration of my information to a variety of relevant formats, including an external hard drive, a

secure online storage account, my current laptop, optical discs, USB pin drives, and physical

copies printed out for storage in a disaster-proof lockbox. I will also utilize the services of the

free Open Source software, FreeFileSync, to maintain my files and synchronize in current

versions. While media formats change over time and technology eventually becomes obsolete,

the steps and strategies I have outlined here should ensure the preservation and access to the

most important digital objects I wish to save over the long-term.

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 References
FreeFileSync. (2019). Open Source File Synchronization. Retrieved from https://freefilesync.org
Oliver, G., & Harvey, R. (2016). Digital Curation. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman.
Schofield, J. (2018, Apr 12). How Can I Store My Digital Photos for Ever? The Guardian.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2018/apr/12/how-can-i-

store-my-digital-photos-for-ever-external-hard-drive
The Library of Congress. (2019). Personal Archiving. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/
The National Archives. (2019). PRONOM. Retrieved from
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/MigrationPathways/proMigrationPathway

Search.aspx?status=new

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