Planning for the Future: Expert Advice On Creating a System to Preserve Valuable Records

By Loretto Dennis Szucs

Expert Advice on creating a system to preserve valuable records:

Two men are standing by the side of the road holding up signs that read, “The End is near! Turn yourself around now before it’s too late!”
They held up the signs to each passing car.
“Leave us alone you fanatics!” one driver yelled as he sped by. From around the curve the two men heard screeching tires and a big splash.
“Do you think,” said one man to the other, “we should just put up a sign that says ‘Bridge Out’ instead?”

It’s easy to feel like the end of the world of media storage is upon us. Doomsayers abound, warning of the impending destruction of precious records. There is good reason for this worry; it is a fact that irreplaceable records ar e being lost forever every day. There are, however, measures being taken to curb those losses and to craft a much different future. At the heart of these “detours” is the idea that you can’t stop the deterioration and obsolescence of records, but you can, through diligence and foresight, create a plan of action to migrate records from one medium to another, keeping them current with technology. This is a component of what most of the major archives and libraries are doing and this same philosophy can be applied in your records collection to ensure that your own personal treasures stand the test of time.

Preserving Historical Records
The thrill of researching history and family history is found in the hunt—overcoming barriers to information and learning something you didn’t know before. These “a-ha” moments come as a direct result of locating and viewing some historical record, be it a census record, a birth certificate, or a family photo. Most of the records you are familiar with were originally paper-based and may have been transferred to microfilm. Some of these microfilmed records have since been used to create digital copies, which are accessible using computers. This last step, the digitizing, creates a highly portable, back-up copy of the information that will not be damaged from overuse as happens to many paper-based record books or photographic prints. The problem with digitizing rests in the format. Beyond the choice of which digital file format will provide the best quality reproduction is the fact that, regardless of the format chosen, it could be obsolete in a matter of years. In addition to file format issues, there is the matter of how you plan to store the digital information. Today, digital files are stored on hard drives, flash drives, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, Zip drives or 3.5&q uot; floppy drives. Who can predict what storage medium will be de rigueur in twenty or thirty years? Anyone who has found an old 5.25″ floppy disk or Bernoulli disk when going through an old box of “treasures” is all too familiar with this potential predicament.In an effort to overcome these issues, the National Archives—the major shareholder in capturing and storing valuable historical data for the United States—has begun a new initiative aimed at creating a system where records are never lost. “The bright spot in all of this is that there is a solution to the problem,” says L. Reynolds Cahoon, chief information officer at the National Archives. “We are developing an Electronic Archives that will store records in two formats, their native format—the format in which they were created—and another independent format. In other words, if a document was made in WordPerfect 5.1, we can transform that record into a format that is independent of any software, like XML, and store them both. With that independent format we could also capture structure, presentation, font size, etc. so that when it is transformed, we provide instructions as to how it can be reassembled into a rendering identical or almost identical to the original.”The desire to capture data for future generations is also a key initiative for municipalities. But the added cost of preservation is not always easy for municipal archives to absorb. While this can certainly be a deterrent, some municipalities are achieving their goals in non-traditional ways. The Archives of the City of New York provides an interesting example. According to Commissioner of Records and Information for the City of New York Brian G. Andersson, the Archives entered into a unique agreement with a private organization to archive and preserve the mayoral records of the outgoing Rudolf Giuliani. Like other mayoral records, his records were to be sent to the city archi ves when he left office. Because of resource issues, records from the Giuliani years were not scheduled to be released anytime soon. The Rudolph W. Giuliani Center for Urban Affairs Inc. contracted with the city to take possession of the records and to create archive versions for themselves, and for the Municipal Archives. “Giuliani’s papers are particularly important because of the dramatic reduction in crime, and because 9-11 happened during his term.” Now, in addition to the original materials, the Archives has microfilm and electronic copies of 90% of the Giuliani records and a finding aid to those. Andersson adds, “Advances in technology shouldn’t scare us so long as we keep up with it. Right now there are city lawyers who are poring over technology issues. One issue that is especially sticky is that of [electronic communication], where, even though [it] may be used specifically for city business, you can easily delete everything, so they are losing some records that, by law, should be preserved.”

For the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the owner of the world’s largest genealogical records collection, digitization provides additional benefits beyond that of preservation. FHL Director Raymond S. Wright says that the lack of durability of CD-ROMs and videocassettes has forced the Library to create a flexible plan of attack. “We have a better idea of how long microfilm will last, and CD technology will probably be developed into a more permanent medium. Hard disk space seems to be a way that allows records to survive for several years. Our belief is that, by then, the records that we have made widely available will be in the hands of thousands and that records will be widely preserved that way. We believe people are going to make their own DVDs and preserve their own records in whatever format is current so long as we are able to make the records available to them.”

This method of arch iving through user-created backups is also suggested by Donn Devine, archivist for the city of Wilmington, Delaware. He calls it “preservation by replication” and says “the more copies out there, the more chances there are for the survival of records.” Devine also agrees that the cost of digitizing is an impediment. “The media is not yet permanent. The cost of digitizing is justifiable only because of accessibility, not as a means of preservation.”

While it may not be in the budget for libraries and archives, many commercial entities have created business models to overcome the cost of digitization. Among them is MyFamily.com, Inc., which has collected and created hundreds of terabytes of family history information over the past eight years. “We’re committed to providing the most comprehensive family history resource possible,” says Chairman of the Board David Moon. “Most family history records are yet not digital. Because these records are so valuable it is one of our top priorities to make them available to people researching their roots online.” Moon adds that the company is collaborating with the family history community and with organizations like the National Archives and the Family History Library, among others, to identify which records to focus on.

It is one thing to digitize the data, and another to make sure it stands the test of time. To insure that data is not lost, MyFamily.com information architects have created a multiple-tiered system of backups, both working copies that are used in everyday business on the website and archival copies that are stored off-site in a steel-reinforced mountain vault (not the mountain vault used by the LDS church, but one near it). To overcome the potential of data loss through obsolescence, the company archives its entire collection on a regular basis. At the end of each archiving cycle they analyze trends in the data archiving industry and make a d ecision on what medium has the best chance of long-term survival. Since the process is repeated so frequently, the chance of the data being stored in an obsolete system is lessened.

Beyond the traditional records you might find at a library or archive, there are many record sources that can add context and perspective to our ancestors’ lives. Among these are photographs, sound recordings, and moving pictures. Numerous projects sponsored by educational, government, and commercial groups are underway to digitally preserve and make available photographs and sound recordings. Alvie Ray Smith, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and trustee of New England Historic Genealogical Society, says that the movie industry has taken steps to protect its legacy, but only belatedly. “Some of the oldest classics were on nitrate film that simply dissolved in the can, and those films are gone forever,” he says. “About forty years ago it was noted that color film from a certain era was losing its color. Some of these films are irretrievably lost. But the industry has financed a film archival effort to restore the old color films to original color, when possible, and to save them on color film that does not lose its color. The movie business is economically motivated to get this right. They can continue to issue films for years and years, but the master must always be available for doing so. I am less worried about the ‘film’ industry than others, because of this intense economic reason for effective archiving.”

Smith says that a factor which will force Hollywood toward a digital solution is the coming of the completely digital theatre, which is already a reality in some locations and is surely the way of the future. “Sooner or later they will be archiving digitally, if they have an economic reason to do so.”

Personal Family Collections
Obviously, preserving and sharing records is important. But, how can you apply lessons learned from these libraries and archives in your own personal collection?

As in every family history project, you should start with yourself. Just as a library or archive might inventory its collection, create your own list of the items you would like to preserve, things that convey some part of your personal or family history in a meaningful way to you and, potentially, to your descendants. Once you have compiled the list, you’ll want to prioritize the items in a descending order of importance, the most perishable items at the top. This is for two reasons: first, so you don’t miss the opportunity to save precious family relics, and second, related to the first, it will give you some built-in motivation to get the project started.

Among your more perishable items will be photographs, moving pictures, sound, and anything stored on computer disks. This is based both on the fact that the media used for capturing these types of memories are more susceptible to deterioration, and they sometimes require format-specific machinery to be read or viewed. Paper-based documents and other family heirlooms can be placed later in your list. With the list complete it is time to create a plan of action for saving each particular item. The resources listed in the sidebar titled “Preservation Resources” will help you get off to a good start.

Once you have a handle on your own collection of family heirlooms, contact other family members to see if they have items that you might want to add to your collection. Be careful not to scare anyone off by asking if you can take their precious family memorabilia. If you explain a little about your project and that you would like to obtain a copy for your family history, they are likely to catch the vision of what you are doing and pa rticipate. The extent to which you pursue records and heirlooms from other family members will be determined by how much of your family history you want to focus on.

A Great Migration
It’s one thing to gather and archive your precious personal history items, but another to ensure that they will be available, and viewable, well into the future. The key words here are migration and flexibility; migrate your digital data from format to format through the years and be flexible. Changes in technology are hard to predict, and you have to be able to adapt. Obviously, with such a system it pays to update your inventory on a yearly basis to make sure that the medium you have chosen is still valid. By creating such a system, and following it through the years, you will be doing all you can to make sure the end of the world for your media doesn’t come.

  Loretto (Lou) Szucs, FUGA is executive editor and vice president of community relations for MyFamily.com. Formerly an archives specialist for the National Archives and Records Administration, Lou is celebrating her thirteenth year working for Ancestry. She has authored several books, and with Sandra Luebking, she co-edited The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches and The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. For the past ten years Matthew Wright has worked in magazine and book publishing with an emphasis on sports, business, and family history. In addition to being a contributing editor for Ancestry Magazine, he is MyFamily.com senior book editor and managing editor of the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly.

Following are excerpts from interviews conducted with some of the major record keepers in the United States:L. Reynolds Cahoon
Chief Information Officer, National Archives and Records AdministrationSome people think that technology is the fast and cheap answer to storage. But unless you’re meticulous, it’s going to get very hard to keep track of where anything is. We have too many records in too many formats. Formats are complex and it’s hard to preserve and read them all.Judith Reid Roach
Head, Local History and Genealogy, Library of Congress The Library will not accept any family history on CD or DVD, even though it’s a growing trend to publish that way. Microfilm is known to last at least thirty-five years, and paper that has been de-acidified will last a lot longer. A hard bound book on acid-free paper is still the medium of choice at the Library of Congress.

Raymond S. Wright III, Ph.D., AG
Director, Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsAt the Family History Library, we are now digitizing records th at we would formerly microfilm. We digitize not so much because of the need for storage and preservation, but because we can index the images when we digitize, thereby making records more accessible and useful. We will copy these records to CDs, DVDs or whatever medium is best at that time so that they will have a will have an extended life.Brian G. Andersson
Commissioner, City of New York Department of Records and Information Services

We never throw out original records. Some think that digitizing records is the answer to everything, because it saves space, but to digitize is only to make a copy. That’s not preservation. Microfilming is the tried and true method. We microfilm so that original records will be spared damage as people handle them.

Marian Smith
Records Officer, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

By digitizing, you are making more records more widely available and in that way saving some. What is clearly necessary is to plan and to budget for data migration. The cost of maintaining original records and digitizing them all is staggering. My confidence is in technology, but the worry is that the people driving it will make the right decisions that are going to have an impact in years to come.

Donn Devine, CG, CGI
An attorney for the City of Wilmington, Delaware; archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington

Technology is wonderful, but it has rendered an awful lot of information obsolete because it was committed to versions of electronics that you can’t read anymore. There is still a big advantage to being able to read something with your eyes.

Ruth Carr
Chief, U.S. History, Local History & Genealogy Division, New York Public Library New York Public Library is one of the Google pilot projects to digitize books in selected libraries. Because many of the books in our division are in fragile condition from constant use, they are too fragile to scan.Johni Cerny
Founder and president, Lineages, Inc.

Our company conducted research several years ago and stored the results in a format we can’t read anymore. As we found out, if you didn’t convert files constantly, you may not be able to read them without special equipment.

Dick Eastman
Assistant executive director for Technology, New England Historic Genealogical Society; Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter

Information stored on CD isn’t going to last, but it’s an easy solution for short-term storage. You shouldn’t archive your information on a CD and put it in a vault. Portable hard drives are better as long-term backups.

Andre Brummer
CDO of MyFamily.com

Once you make a document digital you are able to publish it to the world, making it accessible from anywhere. No need for waiting or for interaction. Digitization is leading to the democratization of genealogy. What was once the pursuit of royalty or the pastime of the wealthy is now open to everyone interested in their ancestry. And the barriers are dropping even farther year by year.Matthew Helm
Chief technology officer, FamilyToolBox.net; director of Human Resource Information Systems, University of IllinoisThe Internet is good for access, not preservation. There should be a master as a backup. We don’t know how long digital media are going to last at this point. We know paper lasts and microfilm has a good record of lasting.

Gary Mokotoff
Co-owner of Avotaynu; pioneer in the computer software industryYou have to ask yourself, “Will we have machines to read this medium in just a few years?” You have to plan to upgrade constantly as mediums change.

  Create Your Checklist and Gather the ItemsStart today by compiling your list of items you would like to preserve. Once you have completed your list, start gathering items together and take an inventory of what may be missing. Among the items you may include on your list, are:

  • Photos
    Tin-types, daguerreotypes, etc.
    Slides
    Negative
    Prints
  • Paper-based family documents
    Birth certificates
    Marriage certificates
    Death certificates
    Obituaries
    Newspaper stories
    Gradua tion certificates
  • Computer files
    Word processing files
    GEDCOMs
  • Moving pictures
    Reels (8mm, 16mm, Super 8)
    Video
  • Sound
    Old audio tapes
  • Heirlooms
    Wood
    Metal
    Clothing
    Porcelain
Preservation ResourcesWebsites
National Archives

Library of Congress
“Caring for Your Collections.” Includes “how to” guides for preserving books, photos, videos, and other media.American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Work


Various Archival Supply Centers

Books
A Preservation Guide: Saving the Past and Present for the Future
By Barbara Sagraves
“Don’t let accumulated certificates, photographs, documents, and other family heirlooms deteriorate in files or shoe boxes. This book provides simple guidelines to ensure that your fragile treasures will survive for future generations.” Caring for Your Family Treasures
By Jane S. Long, Richard W. Long
“…a concise guide to caring for objects of great value, whether sentimental or monetary—from father’s photograph albums and home-movie collections to mother’s prized holiday ornaments and favorite candles ticks…”

How to Clean, Repair, Store and Display Your Heirloom Papers and Photographs
By Martha Webb
“…this valuable reference book will aid…collectors in providing the best care for letters, diaries, documents, and photographic materials…”Articles
Saving Your Family Treasures, a series
By Maureen A. Taylor
(Search by author name; sign up for the Ancestry Daily News to receive future articles.)

Digging in Granny’s Attic: Proper Care and Conservation
By Dewayne J. LenerProtect Your Keepsakes, a Five Part Series

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