Media for storing photographs and notes for use by libraries and museums

[edwin astill]

18 hours ago, seaJane said:

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) announced quite some time ago that it had decided to keep all its archives on acid-free paper, as the least corruptible format.

I guess the type of ink used by the printer would come into play here.   I seem to recall that for those of us with fountain pens there is (or used to be) special Registrars' ink used for BMD certificates for example.

 

Edwin

[seaJane]

20 hours ago, edwin astill said:

special Registrars' ink

Interesting!

[jonbem]

20 hours ago, edwin astill said:

special Registrars' ink used for BMD certificates for example.

I never knew such was available, probably from various emporia.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/registrars-ink/s?k=registrars+ink

[edwin astill]

Here is what Mr Google says:

 

So what is special about registrar's ink? Well, it can't be rubbed out, or washed off, and it doesn't fade. ... Please note – this ink appears blue black, but when dry oxidises to black.

 

Edwin

[Moonraker]

Thanks for all the comments and advice. I suspect that some of the more ambitious ideas might be too much for me, but who knows what I shall resort to as my life inevitably becomes more sedentary.

At present I am steadily de-cluttering my house, with the notion of downsizing, and deciding what to do with my collection and notes is, hopefully, several years in the future.

 

[4thGordons]

I have been following this with interest so thank you for raising it.

Looking into something similar myself (although not on such a scale) I have been looking at secure long term storage of digital files (images etc) -- it seems that the word from the world of archives and "those who know about such things" is moving towards SSD (solid state drives) and away from "HDD" (Hard disc drives) because apparently in the long term they are more reliable and less prone to degrade. I have not personally had a HDD fail (but it does happen) so I shall be looking at SSD for my next external back-up drive.

Just thought I would throw this on the pile for consideration.

Thanks again for raising the question.

Chris

[jonbem]

Ideally something that could avoid this....

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire

Edited 19 August , 2021 by jonbem

[Tom Lang]

2 hours ago, 4thGordons said:

I have been following this with interest so thank you for raising it.

Looking into something similar myself (although not on such a scale) I have been looking at secure long term storage of digital files (images etc) -- it seems that the word from the world of archives and "those who know about such things" is moving towards SSD (solid state drives) and away from "HDD" (Hard disc drives) because apparently in the long term they are more reliable and less prone to degrade. I have not personally had a HDD fail (but it does happen) so I shall be looking at SSD for my next external back-up drive.

Just thought I would throw this on the pile for consideration.

Thanks again for raising the question.

Chris

Chris,

It is healthy that you are now hoping to move out of the shadows of HDD, and you are now considering SSD.

But SSD, or any other future xxD technology, is only useful if you have the technology that created it, to be able to read it sometime in the future - let's say 100 years for starters.

I urge you to think further 'out of the box'. You can 'store' data, but it is of no use if you can't 'restore' and read the data.

If your plan involves any form of technology, it will be superseded in short order! The technology industry are fighting for the £m spent by corporations. Your project is not in their business plan, but they are very willing to accept your credit card if you must - and have it ready for next year, and next year, and the next...

My suggestion is to save your 'data' in printed form. If you store your 'data' in a book format, it cannot be overtaken by the future changes in technology. Any form of technology will be obsolete pretty soon.

Here is a link to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is held annually in Las Vegas, USA. This is an annual event for the electronics industry to show off their latest wares. Just think in terms of what they show today, will be different from what they show next year.

CES - The Most Influential Tech Event in the World - CES 2022

Notice that the link is for the 2022 show. CES 2021 is now 'out-of-date'.

Kindest Regards,

Tom.

 

Edited 19 August , 2021 by Tom Lang
Add text

[chaz]

I made the point earlier about various drive safety and future use of out of date hardware, 

the point raised above about the safety of SSD against HDD being greater with no failures isnt really relevent as SSd has not been around long enough to pick up all the faults and damage we can put them through.  Any form of storage and hardware is liable to be superceded short term. Compare that with the government advising and subsidising us to buy diesel cars then doing a U turn and trying to get them off the road. My 16 plate insignia still does more MPG than my mates 19 plate petrol.

As I have no intention of buying another car before I give up driving , its comparable with the laptop Im using, my old one has lasted longer than this one as its already had two mousepads, the laptop contains a 1gb hard drive and cd player for playing SDGW, the German variation, and more war related cd's that cost money and at present the authors have no intention to put on another format. to replace this laptop, I would have to pay over £1000 to get an equal one to what I have, do I need or want to carry a detachable cd drive around with me? £1000 that is likely to be outdated last week, the Cloud is ok ( I suppose as I dont use it) but , is only accessable with internet, out in the middle of France with little or no internet access or when a modem goes down here you dont get access. 

[4thGordons]

5 hours ago, Tom Lang said:

Chris,

But SSD, or any other future xxD technology, is only useful if you have the technology that created it, to be able to read it sometime in the future - let's say 100 years for starters.

IKindest Regards,

Tom.

 

Tom, I absolutely agree 100% - I do a module in a class I teach where I show part of my photo collection from the Great War and earlier and the students enjoy looking at and handling 110 year old photos.

Then I ask them to consider how many people will be able to see the photos (thousands of them) they have on their phones? in say -- 10 years, let alone 110!

And then I show them some letters from the period which they enjoy reading and interpreting... and then ask them when the last time they wrote a letter to someone was (for many the answer is never) and we ponder what that means in terms of collective and individual memory etc.

As an amateur photographer I print a lot of photos for exactly this reason - almost all my friends and family think I am mad (and they may be correct but not in this particular respect!)

I now have no (easy) way to read the files of research for my doctoral dissertation which was was completed in the late 1990s. This may be a good thing in this case -- but I still have the bound copy to haunt me! So yes I agree entirely - I was simply mentioning SSD/HDD as I got that advice direct from digital archivists and it seemed relevant here.

Cheers

Chris

[Moonraker]

I would like to think that most archives would retain "old" ways of reading material stored electronically and have the ability to transfer it to the latest form of storage, but one could hardly expect them to do so on a regular basis, though perhaps when a particular item was required.

(Going back more than 20 years to when I accessed The Times on microfilm at my local library, I regularly had to ask the librarian to rewind the reel correctly as the previous user had left it back-to-front.)

There appears to be a demand for old slides, including those viewed with a stereoscope, judging from those for my area of interest that are listed briefly on eBay.

The other night I enjoyed "Secrets of the Underground" on the Yesterday channel, which included a visit to the Tube archives. It looked very well organised, but some of the material had become too delicate for anyone but the curator to handle.

[Moonraker]

Ouch! Talking, as we were, of CDs being so yesterday...

I spent the morning tidying up a file of "military Wiltshire" images that I've come across in the past few months. With my old PC it was a few seconds' work to copy them to a CD. I've just spent almost an hour trying to do that with my new PC and external CD drive, but still without luck. Dunno if Windows has moved on in the past seven years and if its latest iteration doesn't like CDs. When I do try to copy, I get a message that 312 images are being transferred, when there are only 141 in the file, then the transfer stalls.

No problems with copying to an external hard drive or even an old-fashioned memory stick (the least reliable form of back-up, I realise).

No need for anyone to offer advice on the problem,thanks. The storage on the CD was a safety-pin to add to belts & braces.

[Ian Ference]

Burned CDs are a particularly poor form of storage, archivally speaking. They have a shelf life of from fewer than 10 up to 20 years, and then good luck retrieving anything from them...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

Cloud storage, high-durability portable externals, and (for those without budget constraints) real-time replication are the ways to go anymore - though actual physical printouts are also always a good thing!

[Moonraker]

After today's experience, I am tempted to forsake CDs entirely!

[MaureenE]

It seems to me that  the Internet Archive, whose mission is to "provide Universal Access to All Knowledge", would be continuously ensuring that its digital files, once uploaded,  are  in a format which is currently accessible by users.

I suppose it is possible that the Internet Archive could for some reason be terminated/disappear, but it seems to me that it has a better chance of continuing on than most other alternatives.

Maureen

[Tom Lang]

13 hours ago, MaureenE said:

It seems to me that  the Internet Archive, whose mission is to "provide Universal Access to All Knowledge", would be continuously ensuring that its digital files, once uploaded,  are  in a format which is currently accessible by users.

I suppose it is possible that the Internet Archive could for some reason be terminated/disappear, but it seems to me that it has a better chance of continuing on than most other alternatives.

Maureen

That does appear to be reasonable, but...

You are required to have the equipment, and have access to the internet. Access to an 'archive' is again dependant on at least one form of technology.

Since we cannot predict the future (I'd be able to control Wall Street outcomes), we are left to 'restrict' our thinking to what we do know, and have experience of, i.e. the less technology that is in the way of the target 'archive', the better our chances of accessing it. A book can be accessed by walking into a library.

Kindest Regards,

Tom.

[Moonraker]

After my problems with CDs, I took a faltering step into the 2020s and copied three files onto Google My Drive, setting up a new account with exclusive sign-on details which I've noted in a paper file offering guidance about what to do with my possessions. One file was a copy of those 440 pages of notes, another an accumulation of miscellaneous images that I've collected over the years, distinct from my postcard collection. The third was my list of British infantry and cavalry units that served in Wiltshire during the Great War, the print-out for which runs to 15 pages of A4.

That will have to do for the time being.

[Tom Lang]

56 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

After my problems with CDs, I took a faltering step into the 2020s and copied three files onto Google My Drive, setting up a new account with exclusive sign-on details which I've noted in a paper file offering guidance about what to do with my possessions. One file was a copy of those 440 pages of notes, another an accumulation of miscellaneous images that I've collected over the years, distinct from my postcard collection. The third was my list of British infantry and cavalry units that served in Wiltshire during the Great War, the print-out for which runs to 15 pages of A4.

That will have to do for the time being.

Looks like you have found the solution with which you are comfortable.

Glad to have poked your ribs a couple of time...

Kindest Regards,

Tom.

[Moonraker]

Oh dear! No problem with those four files copied to Google My Drive when I accessed them on my PC, but when I logged on to My Drive from my phone ALL my data files were there, with the first two that presented themselves being ones I had last consulted in 2016. And there were two helpful buttons inviting one to sign on using  other apps. Bit scary. I like to think that my PC tower is reasonably safe from theft, but it's all too easy to lose one's mobile...

So I reverted to Dropbox, setting it up in a way I hope will mean it will not sync all my files.

And trying to uninstall My Drive proved a challenge - it was very tenacious. None of the online guidance seemed to apply. But I got rid of it in the end.