Just to follow up Marc's comment
An organisation in Australia once had all their records scanned and held them on CD's. These CD's were then placed into a large juke box type device (which allowed a computer programme to access the correct disc and read the information). As information was coming in bits and pieces it was likely for a record on a case/individual to be on multiple CD's. When the system was trying to access information from one case/individual on 10 CD's it used to shake so much that it is very likely some of the discs became corupted just by the movement of the device (scratches etc). So not only does hardware have a defined shelf life, but also has the possibility of being damaged by usage.
TNA has some good guidance on digital continuity so it is proably a good place to start.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/digital-continuity.htm
Personally, I am trying to get the majority of the information into the same format PDFA, where possible. Main reason is lots of others are doing it including a number of Countries, so there is a good likliehood in 100 years time someone will either have a reader to interpret the document or a cool convertor to put it into the latest version of word2100. In terms of storage I will try and keep as much online as possible, mainly as it is likely to be easier to move and back up. As I can imagine the time it would take to plug in dozens/hundreds of some sort of media device to transfer is likely to take a fair bit of time. Especially if the conections between systems change (i.e will usb ports still be around in 20 years?)
Also using portable data drives is likely to cause some Data protection headachces as you would then need to encrypt them in case of loss. But more importantly someone in the future will need to know the password when they actually want to use it to get that really important document from 10-20 years ago.
Thanks
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: The Information and Records Management Society mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marc Fresko
Sent: 24 July 2012 13:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Archiving electronic data
Dear Eleanor
I do hope that nobody has resorted to a warehouse full of removable drives. It really would not work well organisationally, especially for long periods or for large volumes. The practical problems would be legion (indexing content, how to store other metadata, people losing drives and so on); drives would fail (quite likely faster than file formats become obsolete, but that is just a guess); retention management would lead to very strange physical organisations of records; FOI would be a nightmare; and so on. And even if you solve all these issues, portable hard drives will likely become incompatible within (probably) less than a decade. Please don't pursue this idea.
There is a wealth of experience and good practice emerging. While nobody can claim to have a definitively risk-free, forever generic answer, solutions in individual situations are possible and realistic. They generally include more than just the storage medium - things like format, metadata and organisation are just as important - and often are based on several copies of on-line media. This is all quite straightforward for new records, though trickier for a legacy of existing records.
This is really too big a subject to reply to comprehensively, so apologies for the this incomplete response.
Marc
-----Original Message-----
From: The Information and Records Management Society mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eleanor Rowe
Sent: 24 July 2012 10:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Archiving electronic data
Hello
I am seeking help, advice, information on how other local authorities have coped with permanent or long term storage of electronic data.
Basically we are going to The Record being electronic. This means we are going to have to deal with long term preservation of electronic information.
In the meantime the servers are beginning to creak and fall over and we don't have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for endless new ones.
Some truly horrible solutions have been suggested, but I wondered if anyone anywhere had resorted to stand alone portable hard-drives for use by staff? I can see that using these, introducing a secure storage facility for them (just think a warehouse full of these to replace the paper files!), and a future proofing migration programme could work if controlled.
Thank you in advance for your contributions.
Kind regards
Eleanor
Eleanor Rowe
Records Manager
Moray Council
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