Hi Tracy,
Forever is a very long time..
, however in my mind magnetic tape (specifically LTO) is the best preservation medium for long term digital data archive that we have right now and certainly for most companies of our size. We try and do our best with regards to keeping data in a format that is accessible.
It's a very difficult subject to discuss because everyone's needs are purely subjective. We can have a policy of retaining everything but someone in a university probably can't do that given the amount of data you likely produce so you have to have retention policies. Plus your needs are different. We possibly share similarities in that we have post excavation/research projects that go on for years so we are constantly referring back to project data archived yonks ago.
True that stuff needs to be weeded out, and our advantage is our archive gets handed over to a museum (finds, paper and digital) and it affectedly becomes someone else's problem (not that we see it like that).
, Graham.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tracy Wilkinson
Sent: 30 April 2014 09:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MCG] Archiving online documents and emails
Hello Graham,
Actually we shouldn't be keeping everything - that defeats the purpose of an archive. Material should be weeded and organized according to its the institution's collection policy. Magnetic tape is an option but it will not last forever and you may find it difficult to access the material if you don't have the system to play it on. To truly achieve a fifty-year archival life, recording systems, sufficient spare parts, and technical manuals would need to be archived along with the recorded media.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/4life_expectancy.html
If we are talking about born digital material which is text based rather than sound archives there are better ways of preserving it than converting it to magnetic tape.
Best wishes
Tracy Wilkinson
Archivist
St John's College, Cambridge
On 30 April 2014 08:50, Graham Sherwood <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think we all have to grapple with this to some extent. The easy
> thought process is to keep everything because you never know when you
> might need it. The hard process is if you've decided on a policy of
> deleting data, what exactly do you delete and how to do find it and
> given the quantity of data we accumulate is mind boggling.
>
> I prefer to keep everything and over a given period of time archive
> data over to magnetic tape. There is nothing wrong with magnetic tape,
> in fact it's marvellous for long time archive, very cheap and is the
> best solution right now.
>
> P.S. I visited your museum for the first time last week, really enjoyed it.
>
> , Graham
>
>
> Graham Sherwood
> IT Manager
> Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
> Unit 54, Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 Endwell Road, London SE4
> 2PD
> tel: 020 7639 9091
> fax: 020 7639 9588
> [log in to unmask]
> www.pre-construct.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Jonathan Moffett
> Sent: 22 April 2014 15:07
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MCG] Archiving online documents and emails
>
> Dear All,
>
> Given that Museums are in the business of holding on to physical
> objects (and I include archives in there) in perpetuity, how is any
> one coping with the online "objects and archives", such as word
> documents, spreadsheets, emails, images, etc, that we are generating
> everyday and which are just going to keep growing in number and size?
>
> Does any one have a policy for what they are doing with all things
> digital, bearing in mind that much of today's "online objects" may
> only exist in a digital form?
>
> I gather that some funding bodies only expect digital material to be
> kept for some 10 years and then it can be deleted.
>
> Personally I think we should keep everything digital for ever, which
> is a simple thing to write, but when it comes to 80-column punch
> cards, or
> 8 inch floppy disks, or old magnetic tape reels, then that is perhaps
> an unrealistic attitude. And then there are the old Displaywriter
> files, or dbase databases, or viscalc spreadshseets.
>
> Your collective thoughts/wisdom would be appreciated, as it is
> something that the Ashmolean (itself quite old at nearly 331 years) is
> now contemplating.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jonathan
>
>
> --
>
> Dr Jonathan Moffett
> Head of ICT & Webmaster
> Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology
> University of Oxford
> Oxford OX1 2PH
>
> [log in to unmask]
> T+44 (0)1865 278030
>
> Information : +44(0)1865 278 000 / www.ashmolean.org
> For disclaimer see: http://www.ashmolean.org/email/
>
>
> ****************************************************************
> website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
> [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
> ****************************************************************
>
> ****************************************************************
> website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
> [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
> ****************************************************************
>
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|