On a recent trip I visited a funky vintage store to see if anything caught my eye. While I was easily able to keep myself from buying any jewelry or taxidermy, I came across a number of displays of family photographs available for sale. Not only were there bowls of loose photos, there was a …
The popularity of genealogy websites and TV shows is rapidly growing, mainly because the Internet has made it so convenient to access family history information. Almost everything can be done through the computer now. Before the digital age, genealogical research was not only laborious and time consuming, it also resulted in boxes of documents: photos, …
When was the last time you wrote a letter, on paper? Other than my note-to-self stickies (my desk usually has a bunch), or greeting cards, I personally have not written much of substance, just on paper, in a long time. These days, of course, we are engulfed in the digital versions of note writing – …
The following is a guest post by Gloria Gonzalez, a 2011 Junior Fellow working with NDIIPP. When watching a video online, do you ever wonder how much time it took to create? Or what content was left out? During my time as an intern, I worked on a video about descriptive metadata for personal photographs. …
“Bob, can you give a presentation to thirty 8th graders on digital preservation.” “Sure. When’s the presentation?” “At 3:00 o’clock today.” “[YIKES!]” If your organization is like most, this scenario happens more regularly than you’d like. Fear not! The National Digital Stewardship Alliance Outreach Working Group set out to provide some solutions during its workshop …
The following is a guest post by Victoria Priester, a 2011 Junior Fellow working with NDIIPP. During my first week as a Library of Congress Junior Fellow I was given the North Carolina Public Outreach and Education Project. The project’s objective was to send resources and information about personal digital preservation to public libraries, community …
I was recently asked a question that I had never considered before: If I wanted to create a digital time capsule, how would I ensure that it is usable in twenty or fifty or more years? The International Time Capsule Society provides tips on creating a physical capsule. But what about the digital? At its …
After launching on May 31, “The Signal” had a strong first month. We published 27 posts and are pleased to have had over 60 comments during June. The blog appears to reach a broad audience, which is exactly what we hoped for. Staff wrote about digital preservation outreach events, significant reports and publications, data forensics …
Nowadays when we prepare a will, we have the added responsibility of leaving instructions to our loved ones about what to do with our online things after we die. Bequeathing has grown more complicated. Much of our online content consists of our writings – email, text, tweets, blogs, wikis and more – and our loved …