Archiving and Migrating Digital Files

Transcription

1 Archiving and Migrating Digital Files

2 Tony Hanson Genealogist Webmaster Amateur Photographer Engineer

3 Genealogists Love Records No Genealogist ever has enough Managing Records is an important skill If You Can t Find It, You Don t Have it Unknown

4 Terms any genealogist understands Files Folders Archives

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6 Contains: 4,693 Files, 257 Folders

7 Digital Files Documents Pictures Videos Audio Files Social Media

8 Bad News & Good News. The Bad News: We need to learn how to manage and preserve digital files The Good News: This presentation will give you a good start on learning what you need to know!

9 Archiving and Migrating Digital Files Organize Your Files Use Preservation File Formats Backup & Archive Your Files Perform Maintenance & Migration

10 Create a Meaningful Directory Structure Use your computers file structure to your advantage Create a file structure that is meaningful, intuitive and logical To a genealogist

11 Main Directory Sub-Directories

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13 Letters, Notes, etc.

14 Files from your Family Tree Software

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17 Who (Last Name First) Born Died

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19 Missouri_SaintLouis_Calvary_

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23 Halvorson Halvorsen Halvorsdatter Halvorsson Halvorssen

24 Descriptive File Names IMG_1043.jpg Antonsdatter_Alma_Laura_1899_Norway_Rakkestad_Birth.jpg Who (Last Name First) When YYYY YYYYMM YYYYMMDD Where Country County City Farm What (Controlled Vocabulary) Directory Name (Full Path) + File Name can be up to 255 characters

25 Houge_Merle_Kennard_1932_Texas_Death_Certificate.jpg Hanson_Arnold_W_1940_Illinois_Rantoul_Census.jpg Hanson_Anton_Edwin_Geneology_Form.jpg Meyerhofer_Andrew_1918_Wisconsin_Draft_Registration.jpg

26 File Name Guidelines Describe Who, What, Where, When Be consistent Name_Date_Location_Description Do not abbreviate SaintLouisMo MountCarmelCemetery HinsdaleTownship BarronCounty

27 What Version of the Name To Use? Real archivists will tell you to use the name as it appears in the document I prefer to use the same spelling of a name across all documents Name given at birth I am able to sleep at night by including all variations of the name in the Metadata

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30 Do Some Housekeeping Delete files you don t need Delete duplicate files Note Missing Records

31 Metadata Data about something Digital Metadata is Embedded in each file Pre-Digital Metadata Date (Aug 61) Description (Hanson Evans Tollief s Fam)

32 Image File Format Image Data (Pixels) Format Specific (TIFF, JPG, PNG, etc ) Camera Data (EXIF) Exchangeable Image File Format MetaData

33 IPTC: International Press Telecommunications Council The most widely recognized standard for Metadata Established in 1965 by a group of news organizations

34 IPTC Defined For Many Image File Types You can define IPTC metadata for the following image formats:.tif.jpg.png But NOT for these image formats:.bmp.gif

35 Right Mouse Click -> Properties

36 Command-I a.k.a. the Apple Key

37 Software to add Metadata XnViewMP Supports batch updates of files Full IPTC support Versions available for Windows (32 & 64 bit), Mac and Linux Freeware

38 Why is Metadata Useful? Information is directly embedded in the file It goes where the file goes Makes it much easier to locate image records On Your PC On the Internet

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41 Use Preservation File Formats Images Documents

42 Images: Use a Lossless Format Insures that there is no degradation to the quality of the image TIFF (.tif) JPEG 2000 (.jp2 or jpx) Also want a format that supports Metadata Downside: Files will be larger

43 What s Wrong With JPEG? JPEG s file compression introduces a permanent loss in the quality of the image JPEG files lose quality every time they are opened, edited, then saved

44 Make Copies for or Social Media If you want smaller files (for use in Social Media or to send as ): Create the master as a TIFF file Make a copy saved in a more appropriate format PNG, JPG, etc

45 What if JPG is all you have? Goal: Don t Degrade it further. If you edit it, don t save changes Work with a copy Save it in a TIFF file format

46 Camera Images Some allow you to same images in a RAW format These will be larger than JPEG files You must use image editor software (Photoshop Elements) that understands your cameras specific raw format From there you can save images as TIFF

47 Documents: PDF for Archiving Used for long-term preservation of page oriented documents First version: PDF/A ISO Based on PDF Version 4

48 The PDF/A standards attempt to maximize: Device independence Self-containment Self-documentation Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for Library of Congress Collections

49 PDF/A File File Content Data (Your Information) Fonts Colors Page Layout/Format Information

50 Types of PDF/A Files PDF/A 1b Basic Level B conformance Ensures reliable reproduction of the visual appearance of the document PDF/A - 1a Advanced Level A conformance Also ensures that document content can be searched and repurposed

51 Creating PDF/A Documents Adobe Acrobat Pro Microsoft Office allows you to directly create PDF/A-1 versions Word, Excel, PowerPoint (2010) File -> Save as Adobe PDF -> Options -> 1a

52 Verification with Adobe Acrobat Pro

53 Adobe Acrobat Pro: Advanced Options PDF/A-2 PDF/A-3

54 PDF/A Iterations PDF/A-2 (ISO :2011) Permits the embedding of valid PDF Files Based on PDF Version 1.7 PDF/A-3 ( :2012) Permits the embedding of files of any format

55 Identifying PDF/A Files It is not obvious from the file extension. Adobe software will tell you if the file is PDF/A when you open it..pdf?

56 PDF Reader Identifies PDF/A Files This file claims compliance with the PDF/A standard and has been opened read-only to prevent modifications

57 Learn More. Excellent 15 minute video: Working with PDF/A in Acrobat 9 Dr. Dave Merchant

58 Backup & Archive Your Files LOCKSS: Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe All Media will fail eventually Accidents Happen Malware is real and out to get you

59 Backup Strategy: Many Copies, Several Locations Local Remote Off-Line Archive Media

60 Local Copies Native tool in Mac and Windows Operating Systems Low Cost Easy to implement

61 Media Choices 2 nd Internal Disk Drive Network Accessed Server (NAS) USB Disk Drive 2 nd Computer Blue Ray/DVD Disks Flash Drive

62 Remote Copies Store copies with a friend, at your office, or a bank safe deposit box Remote Backup Services BackBlaze, Carbonite, MozyHome, IDrive or CrashPlan have reasonable fee s and work well Cloud Storage services Dropbox, Google Drive (Free or Fee) Amazon S3 (Fee Only)

63 Off-Line Copy A malware attach could infect all of your online files Maintaining an off-line copy as one of your backups is good insurance Disks or Flash External Drive Unplugged when not in use

64 Physical Disk Storage Guidelines Cool, dry location Free of large temperature fluctuations Avoid sunlight (Causes Heat, UV damage) Use containers designed specifically for the type of media

65 Make Copies on Archival Media Has demonstrated ability to store data for a relatively longer period of time. This type of media should be one of your media choices

66 Ultra long lasting DVD s & Blue Ray Disc s May last 1000 years.

67 M-Disc Looks like an ordinary CD/DVD Requires a special Writer Can be read on any reader

68 M-Disc Cost Internal Drives DVD: $16 Blue Ray: $35 - $60 M-DISC Support Media: Cost per Gigabyte is decreasing 25 GB Disk: 4.1 cents per GB ($1.00) 50 GB Disk: 4.4 cents per GB ($2.20) 100 GB Disk: 12.0 cents per GB ($12) Prices as of Mid-January 2015

69 Archive Copy Your Digital Legacy A well organized archive with: With metadata tags, Utilizing appropriate file formats, Written on archival quality media Your gift to future researchers!

70 Maintenance & Migration

71 PC Hardware & Operating System Keep your operating system up to date Obtain and load patches/upgrades Don t stay on un-supported versions (XP, Vista) Replace your PC periodically Stay current on technological advances Avoid age related failures May force you to update software

72 When You Do Replace Your PC Move all of your data to the new PC Load all of the programs And all plug-ins & drivers Verify that you can read all of your files

73 Keep Your Software Up To Date Too Upgrade as new releases become available When you get new software, refresh the files they support Open, then save each file using the new version of the software Migrate files to something else when support for a product ends The Master Genealogist Support Ended in 2014.

74 Storage Media Strategy Create new copies as your media approaches the end of its projected life Migrate to new media When the old media is no longer supported When there is a significant advance in capacity, longevity and/or price Repeat as necessary

75 Archiving and Migrating Digital Files Organize Your Files Use Preservation File Formats Backup & Archive Your Files Perform Maintenance & Migration

76 There is no one Right Way to do this Adapt guidelines from others to suit your own needs and way of doing things

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78 Questions?