Storage Options for Digital Archives

Storage Options

When you are deciding what the best storage solution for your digital archive, you have many choices. Here are some ideas:


• External hard drives
  1 TB ~ approx. $100 (1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte and 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte)
  
• DVD-R’s
  4.7GB each, 100 ~ approx. $22
  

Cloud Storage
There are many free hosted storage services available which you can use to keep your archive in the cloud. The obvious benefits of cloud storage is that your digital assets become accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection, and they are easily shareable.

• Windows Live SkyDrive
  25GB Free storage
  
• Dropbox
  2GB Free
  Syncs your files online and across your computers automatically.
  
• Box.net
  5GB Free
  Syncs your files online and across your computers automatically.

Digital Repositories
A digital repository is a database containing the intellectual output of an institution or discipline. They are maintained by various organizations and are an excellent way to make sure that digital assets are preserved for the future without having to maintain them yourself.

Types of files they store:

• Scholarly articles –Pre-Prints –Post-Prints
• Dissertations
• Conference Papers
• Book Chapters
• Data Sets
• Learning Objects

Examples of Digital Repositories:

• Disciplinary (E-LIS, ArXiv, RePEc)
• Institutional (MIT, U Southampton )
• General (Internet Archive)
• Directory of Open Access Repositories: OpenDOAR

Light vs. Dark Archives

• When considering where to store your archival files you will want to consider privacy in your selection decision. Will you be creating a light (public) or dark (private) archive or a hybrid collection? Will it matter to you that a third-party will have access to your files if you store them in the cloud? Does your archive contain materials which cannot legally be stored in this manner due to privacy concerns? Consider what types of sensitive material (e.g. your bank account information, or lists of family phone numbers and dates of birth, etc.) you store in the cloud.
• At the same time, consider all of the advantages that cloud storage offers such as the ability to share files and folders with colleagues, family, and friends, and ubiquitous accessibility from many devices including mobile phones.

Rule of 3′s

• It is a best practice to save your archival collection in 3 places, preferably 3 geographically separate places.
• A strategy might be to keep one copy on your desktop computer, one copy on an external hard drive stored at work or school, and a third in the cloud.
• Many people, myself included, also print out a copy of important files as this one. “Non-digital” format is still the most stable.

Warm vs. Cold Assets

• It is a best practice to determine a file’s value and determine whether it is suitable for archiving while it is still “warm” or useful, the time immediately following the file’s completion or acquisition. Once an item goes “cold” it becomes difficult to assess its value and provenance.