Personal Archving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage

Personal Digital Archiving (PDA) refers to how individuals create, store, and manage their digital files. Libraries and other cultural institutions have long been engaged in preservation activities, but now individuals are becoming interested in preserving their digital heritage. In response to this trend, the Library of Congress as well as commercial organizations have begun to offer services to help people archive their important documents and compile family histories. Libraries have a significant role to play in PDA because many of their users need help in understanding the issues and in beginning a PDA project.

In this webinar, I will describe the major driving forces of PDA and some of the issues affecting it, especially organization and digitization of materials not in digital form. Significant commercial services now available will be described. Storage and technology considerations must be addressed. Digital legacies are critically important for PDA, and it is important for people with a significant digital footprint to consider them and how they want to pass their archives on to their heirs. Some people will opt to do their own digitization; I will also present a case study of my own PDA project and how I archived a large collection of family photos on 35mm slides dating from the 1950s.

Presented on May 19, 2016 by Donald T. Hawkins