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Archiver > TMG > 2000-02 > 0949477384


From: "Hugh Wilding" <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Data Storage for the Future
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:43:04 -0000


David Murray wrote:


> >QUESTIONS TO THE LIST MEMBERS:
> >
> >* How are YOU ensuring your data is preserved for the future? After
> >all, none of use want to see all our work lost in a cleanout of the
> >study after our death!!
>
> I've seen this question asked so many times recently, in different ways in
> different fora, that I've come to wonder whether there's a need for a
> specialist List on the subject. I personally don't have time to organise
> it, with a business to run and a lot of international travel, but would
> certainly be a participant. Meanwhile, let's debate it on TMG-L.

I've asked something similar in the past so I'm certainly interested in such
a debate.

> At the very least I believe we should, when we have a reasonable amount to
> preserve, provide copies to the nearest public archives office (in the UK
> those are the County Record Offices; in some places they may be the better
> libraries), if desired with a "sealed until" date and making clear that
> although deposited there they remain private property, so that you can
will
> them to someone if you so wish. At least then the precious papers will be
> properly cared for along with other historical documents.

Why not with your will at the lawyers? The main problem, as I see it for
me, is not the *where*, it's the *what*. My work, on my family, is very
much *work in progress* and will be so while I continue to enjoy the
activity. What I want to be able to do is to store/share my findings as I
progress so that, in the event of the proverbial Clapham omnibus running me
over, my work lives on and is of use to others in its most advanced state
and not, alas, already out-of-date. None of the exisiting avenues e.g. LDS
Ancestral FIle seem to provide the necessary flexibility to allow for this
ongoing development of one's work - once published, that seems to be that.
Of course, the internet can be seen as a useful tool in this context and it
may be that Rootsweb or similar is a pratical vehicle for this.

> As to printed media, I still am trying to find some time to experiment
with
> using lawyers' permanent black ink in an ink-jet printer on acid-free
> paper. Will it work? I've heard so, and it would be marvellous .... but
> somehow I expect technical problems.

Xerox say that their *standard* photocopies are good for 100 years (I think
they used *ordinary* copy stock for these tests). At the end of this time,
simply re-photocopy - but unfortunately, we/you/I won't be around to make
sure this happens!

> As to electronic media, I suspect that archivists will make sure that they
> can read old formats just as many today can read Latin. However, I
suggest
> simplifying their lives by storing everything as ASCII text files, not in
> word-processor formats. There is a possibility that Acrobat PDF files
> might become globally used for so many purposes for so long that they
> become an essential component of future archivist skills, but it might be
> risky to assume it.

I think we await the arrival of an archival standard. It may be .PDF, ASCII
or something still to *emerge* but with so many becoming interested in
genealogy/family history, *something* will emerge, I am sure.

Hugh Wilding
Berkshire, England
<>

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