The 100 Year Lie And The Lay Of The Shelf
25 February 2014
*Thanks to Kevin Driedger for the inspiration here (and shout out) in his blog post “Time & Media” over at Library Preservation 2.
More Podcast, Less Process Episode 7 Now Available
24 February 2014
Episode #7 of “More Podcast, Less Process”, the archives podcast co-produced by METRO and AVPreserve, is now available for streaming and download. This week’s episode is “humans.txt.mp3 : The Web Archivists Are Present” with guests Alex Thurman (Web Resources Collection Coordinator, Columbia University Libraries) and Lily Pregill (Project Coordinator & Systems Manager, New York Art Resources Consortium). Web archiving and the tools available for doing it have made a lot of advancements of late, but there are still a number of gaps in our capabilities and challenging policy decisions institutions must make when undertaking archiving one’s own website or sites from the web at large. Alex and Lily are leaders within their organizations in overcoming these challenges, and with co-hosts Josh and Jefferson they delve into the many issues faced and solutions derived.
Nine Things To Consider When Assessing Cloud Storage
20 February 2014
When evaluating cloud storage providers, it is dangerous to assume such services are only storage and therefore uncomplicated or that requirements for storage are obvious and therefore inherently met by the service provider. Experience with any technology selection will prove the opposite.
No two services are the same and the variance between services often represents the difference between successful implementation and a failed initiative. Never purchase a service without proper vetting; uninformed decisions risk loss of time, money, and even assets. These nine assessment criteria will help you get started in asking the right questions and making a practical, informed decision on using cloud storage for archival or preservation needs.
New AVPreserve Resource on Assessing Cloud Storage
20 February 2014
AVPreserve Consultant Seth Anderson wrote in a blog post earlier this week about the need for a practical approach to assessing cloud storage and other cloud services for use in an archival or preservation-oriented environment. He points out how “The misinterpretation of cloud services and their operations — and a number of operational hiccups in many service providers’ development of their products — has kept preservation organizations from readily adopting cloud computing,” but that such services must be seriously considered as an alternative for organizations with limited budgets, infrastructure, and support for the storage of digital files at a preservation level.
The Need for a Practical Approach to Assessing Cloud Services for Preservation
18 February 2014
With each new release or update of my iPhone operating system, I am required to revisit and complete the redundant process of “setting up” my phone. The “iPhone Essentials” process includes establishing a Wi-Fi connection, signing into your Apple account, turning on various features, and setting up your iCloud account. iCloud was launched in 2011 and is now a regular feature of most Apple products. It allows users to store contacts, calendars, music, and other data in the cloud and to sync such information between Apple devices. With iCloud, Apple has expedited the establishment of a cloud storage service and infrastructure into a few easy steps: sign in with your account information, choose what you want to store, and sync your data. Many users, myself included, likely take for granted the service offered by Apple; the simple setup and automatic integration of the service allows users not to ignore what, how much, and where their data is used and stored by iCloud.
Three Views Of Digital Preservation
5 February 2014
I worked on a large inventory project with a group of media production units in the Department of Defense a few years ago. We were at one of the storage facilities and a shipment of albums that had been on a base in Spain came in that day. As we were opening one of the couch-sized boxes to get an estimate of what was inside, someone warned us to be careful and not dig around in the box too quickly — you couldn’t be sure what critter had slipped in during years of storage and months of international transport. We laughed at what we thought was some friendly teasing, but he was serious. Scorpions, insects, spiders, reptiles, etc. could have crept in at any time, and we had to watch out.
