Protecting and preserving the archives
Every institution has some sort of historical archive, whether by accident or by design. Either there's lots of detritus left around in corners of closets and tucked in distant filing cabinets, or a deliberate effort has been made to record, store, and preserve historical information for posterity. The trouble is that artifacts of every kind, from papers to material samples, are subject to the ravages of time. Thus, for archives to be of any use, someone must have the responsibility to ensure that those archives are safely kept.
A 2008 fire at the Universal Studios video vault was thought to have destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 old movies and television episodes. The company claimed it had backup copies of all of the materials -- and rival studios like Sony claim to have original copies of all of their archives, along with two sets of duplicates, all stored in different parts of the country. That sort of preservation security may sound like overkill, but to a movie studio, those original and duplicate recordings are likely the most valuable things they own.
Institutions looking to protect themselves from the effects of similar calamities ought to assess their own archival policies to ensure that in case of disaster, they have some foundation upon which to rebuild. Proper archives would include both historical and contemporary materials for safe keeping. Those materials ought to include at least the following:
Disasters can happen; the city of Parkersburg, Iowa, lost everything in its city hall when an F5 tornado destroyed the building in 2008. All of the city's records went with the building. Protecting the most vital information in a way that can be easily recovered is essential. A simple method may be to ship digital records on DVDs or other memory media to an out-of-town post office box, preferably in some location 100 to 200 miles away from the main site. That helps to ensure that they are geographically isolated from any large-scale disaster close to home, but close enough that they can be retrieved within a day's drive if necessary.
A 2008 fire at the Universal Studios video vault was thought to have destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 old movies and television episodes. The company claimed it had backup copies of all of the materials -- and rival studios like Sony claim to have original copies of all of their archives, along with two sets of duplicates, all stored in different parts of the country. That sort of preservation security may sound like overkill, but to a movie studio, those original and duplicate recordings are likely the most valuable things they own.
Institutions looking to protect themselves from the effects of similar calamities ought to assess their own archival policies to ensure that in case of disaster, they have some foundation upon which to rebuild. Proper archives would include both historical and contemporary materials for safe keeping. Those materials ought to include at least the following:
- employee records
- warranty information
- purchase records for major equipment
- duplicates of major contracts
- records of historical significance
Disasters can happen; the city of Parkersburg, Iowa, lost everything in its city hall when an F5 tornado destroyed the building in 2008. All of the city's records went with the building. Protecting the most vital information in a way that can be easily recovered is essential. A simple method may be to ship digital records on DVDs or other memory media to an out-of-town post office box, preferably in some location 100 to 200 miles away from the main site. That helps to ensure that they are geographically isolated from any large-scale disaster close to home, but close enough that they can be retrieved within a day's drive if necessary.
