I would also recommend keeping your original copies. Paper is one of the
cheapest and most stable materials to curate long-term. Maintaining
digital archives long term also requires regular maintenance, a finding
aid and/or database system to manage your metadata, and trusted
back-ups. Focus on creating digital copies for 1). preservation
purposes- paper that is very fragile or handled too much, 2) to improve
access for your most used archives.
Good luck!!
On 2018/01/23 05:03, Laura Rice wrote:
> Hi Sarah,
>
> I would not recommend destroying paper copies. They are your backup.
> We had an incident with ransomware that was only solved by using paper
> copies to recreate the digital files. Even if we had paid as
> requested, there is no guarantee we'd have gotten our files unlocked.
> You don't want to be in that position!
>
> Laura Rice
> Chief Curator
> The Adirondack Experience
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Sarah Saxe
> Sent: Monday, January 22, 2018 7:16 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Digital registration files
>
> Hello All,
> I'm wondering if other institutions have been challenged to go
> completely digital with registration/curatorial files. I have been
> charged with investigating the feasibility, pros, and cons of doing
> this for my museum. My immediate reaction was panic, but I'm hoping to
> get more information from others who have been in a similar situation.
> This would be a huge undertaking for us, as we have a half century+ of
> past records of all types, and we'd need to work out a new system of
> strictly digital record keeping moving forward; but in theory, we
> could do it. But do we want to? With new records, currently we are
> keeping hard copy originals in fireproof cabinets, we scan and save
> pdfs on our server, and we attach files to our collections software,
> which is all backed up on the cloud. We are slowly making progress
> scanning and attaching old records. Would anyone argue to keep ONLY
> digital copies of past and future records? I see many red flags and
> obstacles- am I just stuck in the past? Does anyone have positive
> experiences and/or comments regarding this?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sarah
>
> Sarah Saxe, Curator of Collections
> City of Greeley Museums
> 714 8th Street, Greeley, CO 80631
> Office: (970) 350-9219
> Fax: (970) 350-9570
> Website l Facebook
>
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