I haven’t gotten to read much for fun this weekend. Instead I am steeped in articles on personal information management, digital preservation, personal archives, and email preservation/curation. It is fascinating stuff! This reading is part of my research for my final project for my library school class this quarter on digital preservation.
I am finding that personal information management is a relatively new field of interest to information scientists. I am also finding that information scientists haven’t done much to educate or help the average person manage and preserve his/her digital life. There are a number of projects past and current but next to nothing that has been released into the wild that people can actually use. Most everything is designed for institutional settings and forgets about you and me. Which is a shame because I imagine there might be lots of people out there who would like to preserve photos and email correspondence and other digital items to be able to share with or pass on to family members.
This has prompted me to put together a little informal survey. Please feel free to put your answers in the comments or email me. If you don’t want to answer the survey questions but still have thoughts on the subject, please leave a comment. I want to get an idea if and how people are thinking about this kind of stuff both for my own curiosity and because I might be able to use some of the information in my paper (if that is ok with you if it isn’t, please be sure to say so).
An Informal Survey on Digital Preservation
- Have you ever lost digital documents (email, images, music, text files, etc) because you didn’t know how to save them short-term or long-term?
- Are you interested in preserving your digital files so that in 10, 20, 30+ years they will still be accessible?
- Do you know anything about digital preservation practices?
- If so, how did you learn about it?
- If not, would you be willing to learn? How would you prefer to learn? A website, book, class, manual that accompanies software that will help you preserve your digital documents, or some other way?
- Do you have a personal email or other data preservation plan?
- If so, can you briefly outline your plan?
- If not, can you briefly explain why?
- If there were an easy way to preserve email correspondence (and important email attachments) for both the short and long-term, would you be interested in it?
- If the preservation system came in the form of open source (free) software, how likely would you be to use it?
- If the preservation system came in the form of licensed software that you had to pay for would you use it and how much would you be willing to pay for it?
- If the preservation system requested additional information from you in the process of converting your files for preservation such as keyword tags, subject information if the subject line is blank, and basic information regarding any embedded hyperlinks or attached files or images, how likely would you be to provide that information and why?
- Do you have any questions of additional comments?
Thanks!
I couldn’t think of any reason why I’d want to preserve my web activity, but my wife would be interested in preserving hers. She manages to do this by printing out e-mails exchanged with her siblings and – sometimes – our children. Her method is simple: she prints them out and keeps them in a notebook.
1.Have you ever lost digital documents (email, images, music, text files, etc) because you didn’t know how to save them short-term or long-term?
probably, but nothing lately. I try to save important files on a USB key (2 actually, just in case…) and photos often end up on cds.
2.Are you interested in preserving your digital files so that in 10, 20, 30+ years they will still be accessible?
of course!
3.Do you know anything about digital preservation practices?
■If so, how did you learn about it?
■If not, would you be willing to learn? How would you prefer to learn? A website, book, class, manual that accompanies software that will help you preserve your digital documents, or some other way?
I don’t know anything and would be willing to learn if it’s not too complicated. I can’t stand manuals and never read them; classes are good but can sometimes feel like a waste of time; the website seems like what would suit me most, maybe with some online lessons with different topics and discussion threads.
4.Do you have a personal email or other data preservation plan?
■If so, can you briefly outline your plan?
■If not, can you briefly explain why?
Not too sure what you’re asking, sorry…
5.If there were an easy way to preserve email correspondence (and important email attachments) for both the short and long-term, would you be interested in it?
Yes. I already file all the important emails.
6.If the preservation system came in the form of open source (free) software, how likely would you be to use it?
I would ask someone who knows about technology better than I do if it’s reliable and maybe ask help to set it up.
7.If the preservation system came in the form of licensed software that you had to pay for would you use it and how much would you be willing to pay for it?
Euh… don’t know really.
8.If the preservation system requested additional information from you in the process of converting your files for preservation such as keyword tags, subject information if the subject line is blank, and basic information regarding any embedded hyperlinks or attached files or images, how likely would you be to provide that information and why?
These are not personal information so I don’t think I would have a problem giving them, but then it would depend on how the information is used I guess and who has access to it.
9.Do you have any questions of additional comments?
1. Not yet, but I’m paranoid that I someday will.
2. Absolutely.
3. I know nothing about it. You shouldn’t have to take a class to be able to save some photos. It shouldn’t take more reading than what it takes to figure out how to use most electronics out of the box (by which I mean it should be mostly intuitive, with some back-up documentation for reference.
4. No plan. I’m currently at 8% of my allegedly allotted gmail storage. I count on gmail still being there 40 years from now.
5. Yes.
6. Very.
7. Not much.
8. The only limitation to my providing this sort of info would be time relative to the value I placed on any particular aspect (eg, I wouldn’t bother tagging people/locations in photos I should’ve deleted but just could never be bothered to).
9. Please report back!
Isabella, 8. Absolutely! In our catalogue I just type “NOT INDEX” for those I should have deleted but are now “in the system”.
Have you ever lost digital documents (email, images, music, text files, etc) because you didn’t know how to save them short-term or long-term?
Yes. Too many times actually. I hate when it happens…
Are you interested in preserving your digital files so that in 10, 20, 30+ years they will still be accessible?
Yes I would love that. I am actually quite afraid of losing old thesis work and stuff like that – want to be able to revisit them in many years.
Do you know anything about digital preservation practices?
No not really
If so, how did you learn about it?
If not, would you be willing to learn? How would you prefer to learn? A website, book, class, manual that accompanies software that will help you preserve your digital documents, or some other way?
A website or youtube videos would be great!
Do you have a personal email or other data preservation plan?
No but I should put one together.
If so, can you briefly outline your plan?
If not, can you briefly explain why?
I never thought about it really…
If there were an easy way to preserve email correspondence (and important email attachments) for both the short and long-term, would you be interested in it?
If the preservation system came in the form of open source (free) software, how likely would you be to use it?
If the preservation system came in the form of licensed software that you had to pay for would you use it and how much would you be willing to pay for it?
If the preservation system requested additional information from you in the process of converting your files for preservation such as keyword tags, subject information if the subject line is blank, and basic information regarding any embedded hyperlinks or attached files or images, how likely would you be to provide that information and why?
Do you have any questions of additional comments?
Well, must support library students, mustn’t I?
1. Probably, though can’t recollect particular examples right now.
2. Absolutely.
3. Yes…through my work as a librarian etc. And I try to keep up by reading, and talking.
4. Yes, my husband! Well, he has created a database for my old emails so I can search them (and so backing them up was simpler for him – but don’t ask me to fully explain the complexity of his back up process!) Great service… Main problem though is weeding them. In the end I didn’t weed them as much as I would like to have…but it’s better to have more than I want than less eh?
5. Yes.
6. Pretty likely if it was compatible with Macs and user friendly to manage!
7. We are GOOD people who always pay for licensed software, so yes we would. If it were good software we’d probably be happy to pay a couple of hundred dollars particularly if new releases/upgrades were offered at a reasonable price.
8. Pretty likely, depending on how much time I had – I’d hope good software would include some good inbuilt searching capability but appreciate that much value can often be achieved by some consistent tagging etc.
9. We are currently in the process of cataloguing our digital photographs using Expression Media – digital asset management software – and will write the data we create there back onto the photographs which are then being backed up. Preserving our photographs is probably our number 1 priority, but we have also scanned personal documents (birth and marriage certs, academic certs, etc to provide backup for the paper docs.) I organise all my word processed etc docs into folders and my husband backs them up regularly. At times has had to convert obsolete formats eg from Claris Works or Nisus to MsWord.
Hope this helps, Stefanie
Thank you everyone for you comments! Very helpful and very much appreciated!
Here are my answers to your survey:
1. Have you ever lost digital documents (email, images, music, text files, etc) because you didn’t know how to save them short-term or long-term? Yes!
2. Are you interested in preserving your digital files so that in 10, 20, 30+ years they will still be accessible? I would be interested in preserving some of my digital files.
3. Do you know anything about digital preservation practices?
* If so, how did you learn about it?
* If not, would you be willing to learn? How would you prefer to learn? A website, book, class, manual that accompanies software that will help you preserve your digital documents, or some other way? I would be willing to learn and would prefer an online tutorial.
4. Do you have a personal email or other data preservation plan?
* If so, can you briefly outline your plan?
* If not, can you briefly explain why?
I do not and I really should but don’t because I just haven’t made it a priority. I still file and save paperwork but my digital archiving leaves much to be desired!
5. If there were an easy way to preserve email correspondence (and important email attachments) for both the short and long-term, would you be interested in it? Yes, I would be interested.
6. If the preservation system came in the form of open source (free) software, how likely would you be to use it? I would probably give it a try.
7. If the preservation system came in the form of licensed software that you had to pay for would you use it and how much would you be willing to pay for it? I would pay up to $100 if the software came with all of the instructions on how to set up the archives, etc.
8. If the preservation system requested additional information from you in the process of converting your files for preservation such as keyword tags, subject information if the subject line is blank, and basic information regarding any embedded hyperlinks or attached files or images, how likely would you be to provide that information and why?
I probably wouldn’t want to go to the trouble to provide all of that information. If I were willing to get down to that level of detail I probably already would have come up with a digital preservation strategy for my household.
You are all awesome. Thank you!
How did I miss this? Anyway:
1. More times than I care to think about.
2. Yes, at least, certain correspondence threads. (The notices about meetings can go!)
3. Nothing whatsoever. A little online tutorial would be my preference, like the one you sent me about posting pictures – that was awesome.
4. I have two email programs and no plans at all.
5. Yes!
6. Much more likely than…
7. Because I am cheap where computers are concerned.
8. I wouldn’t mind – it’s the kind of information that’s often asked for – but I agree with the others that I wouldn’t want to have to spend much time on an extensive cataloguing system. Not least because I would forget what tags I had attached to what information in a matter of days. Memory of a goldfish, me.
9. I’d love to know how you get on with this project!
1. Have you ever lost digital documents (email, images, music, text files, etc) because you didn’t know how to save them short-term or long-term?
Because I didn’t know how to? No. Because I couldn’t be bothered? Yes.
2. Are you interested in preserving your digital files so that in 10, 20, 30+ years they will still be accessible?
Not particularly, though if I were to revisit this question in ten years I might find I regret that answer.
3. Do you know anything about digital preservation practices?
* If so, how did you learn about it?
* If not, would you be willing to learn? How would you prefer to learn? A website, book, class, manual that accompanies software that will help you preserve your digital documents, or some other way?
A little. I think I know more about scholarly-content-focused digital preservation, though, as opposed to personal digital preservation — I know about Portico and LOCKSS and CLOCKSS from work. I would be willing to learn more, probably by website or software manual, but haven’t been too motivated because I’m not *that* interested.
4. Do you have a personal email or other data preservation plan?
* If so, can you briefly outline your plan?
* If not, can you briefly explain why?
No. I hardly ever want or need to refer back to old emails. I use Gmail and for the moment, I’m fine with trusting Google to preserve my email for me. I know that is not the most reliable strategy: companies can lose data, misuse data, go under, decide to start charging for things that once were free, etc. But for me, for now, it works. I’m OK with the fact that I’ve lost any and all old emails from the mid to late 1990s when I was on AOL; I doubt I have much email from college though I probably have some of it; it sort of feels like “well, why start now?”
5. If there were an easy way to preserve email correspondence (and important email attachments) for both the short and long-term, would you be interested in it?
Eh. If it were easy enough – and also free – maybe, just out of curiosity.
6. If the preservation system came in the form of open source (free) software, how likely would you be to use it?
Depends how easy it is. If I could set it to do automatic backups then very likely; if I had to manually save/export things, then not as likely.
7. If the preservation system came in the form of licensed software that you had to pay for would you use it and how much would you be willing to pay for it?
I probably wouldn’t use it.
8. If the preservation system requested additional information from you in the process of converting your files for preservation such as keyword tags, subject information if the subject line is blank, and basic information regarding any embedded hyperlinks or attached files or images, how likely would you be to provide that information and why?
Not that likely, except maybe about the hyperlinks. I’d basically be happy with full-text searching capabilities. At work, where I have to search for old emails (or search for things in our bug-tracking system) quite often, I usually find it easy to find what I’m looking for because I’ll remember, oh, that came up when we were talking about x, so searching for x should find it, or whatever. Keyword tags are hard – I like and use delicious, but mostly for things that I group under really obvious tags (books, recipes, plus some variations thereof for special circumstances), but for less-frequently-used tags, it’s hard to remember “ok, what did I tag this sort of thing as?” I have that same problem with flickr, too – like, “did I tag things as flower or flowers?” – which ultimately lead me to switch to “flora” instead.”
9. Do you have any questions of additional comments?
Like others have said, I’d be interested in reading more about your project as it progresses!