Notes about Archiving
Archiving your records is important if you want them to be passed down to the next generation.
Here are some guidelines on how best to keep your journal projects, family albums, letters and other important documents future-safe.
Photographs and treasures
- Only use acid free papers, tissue, boxes and plastics to store items and avoid using sticky tape or glue, unless they are of archival quality. Most modern papers are acid free, so should easily see out the next 200 or more years. Scrapbooking stores specialise in such materials, and will have a good range of sleeves, glues, tapes and papers.
- Choose a quality professional lab for printing digital photographs, or if you prefer to print at home, use archival quality inks and papers.
- Keep a record of dates, names and places for your photographs in a printed form as well as a digital signature.
- Use pencil rather than pen if you wish to write on the back of photographs.
- If you live in a high-risk bushfire or flood zone, store special treasures and photographs offsite in a safe area during the danger period. Family or friends are usually willing to help, or you can use a self-storage facility. Include a back up disk with digital photos and videos. This will allow you to concentrate on protecting your family and pets and preparing your property should you need to evacuate.
Digital records
- Regularly back up your photographs to TWO portable hard drives. Keep one offsite. Replace your portable hard drives every two years.
- Choose CD-ROM (gold surface) if you wish to keep more permanent digital records. While this is currently the most stable storage medium, keep an eye on technology. Once CD readers start becoming obsolete, you will need to copy all your data.
- “Copy” photos from your camera onto your computer, rather than “moving” them. Check they have successfully been transferred before deleting them from the camera’s memory card.
- Choose generic file formats such as JPG, PDF, AVI or MXF for long term storage, rather than current software standards (e.g. DOCX, RAW, MP3). Resave photographs and video whenever a new file format standard is announced.
For more information, see Keeping Family Treasures, by Elizabeth Masters and Ian Batterham, available through Australian National Archives bookshop.
Originally published online in Maeve Magazine – Winter 2011
2
