John, While I agree that digital technologies do become obsolete, I don't see paper as a particularly good alternative either. Paper deteriorates, inks fade. And, fire and flood is all too common.
I attended a Dick Eastman presentation, and his advice was 'multiple copies, multiple media types, multiple locations. That is the only way to protect yourself from the failure of any one backup. Digital media do become obsolete, absolutely. One needs to periodically copy data from old media to new media, one to keep up with technology and simply to ensure that the original media is still readable. And, even new hard drives, DVD's, USB sticks, and whatever is coming in the future will fail. Hence, multiple copies. I keep data on my hard drive, backup to USB and DVD held at my home frequently, use Dropbox for on-line backup, and periodically take DVD backups to friends and family that live far away. Certainly, paper can be one of those multiple backups, but I'm not sure it's the most secure. Paul -----Original Message----- From: John Carter [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: May-28-11 12:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Speaking of pictures Unless you and your descendants continuously stay current with changes in digital storage technology, your digital data will eventually become inaccessible. Once upon a time, the 8" floppy disk was the commercial standard for digital storage and backup. Do you know anyone who has the equipment to read an 8" floppy disk? Or even a 5 1/4" floppy disk? Eco-friendly is fine (my recycle bin contains more than my garbage bin), but some of the family history I've collected is too valuable to entrust solely to a medium that is guaranteed to become obsolete - it's just not possible to re-interview someone who died 10 years ago. For that reason, I keep all paper originals. Every couple of years, I print appropriate multi-generation documents to have a human-readable copy of the data. (two family lines, 11 generations back in some places) John > I agree with you James. There doesn't seem any real justification for > keeping paper documents when it's not eco-friendly to use all that paper > and > most things now can be stored digitally, unless of course they're > originals > but even these can be scanned. Just in case anyone wasn't aware, as I > recall > in one of the recent webinar's it was recommended they be saved as .tif's > at > 600dpi, 100% scale to preserve the integrity of images they need to be > stored. I thought that was a really good tip. > > > On 28 May 2011 17:48, James Cook <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I've been working on this hobby seriously for about 1 1/2 years now. >> At the time, I read about organization, and most of the articles I >> found were how to keep binders. This is the computer age, and I'm a >> computer guy, so took some ideas from the binder based articles, but >> scan and organize all my stuff electronically on my computer. >> >> I find the thing I like best about it is that if somebody asks me for >> something, I can just email them the document. >> However, I user dropbox too, and as others have said, having >> everything electronically scanned in allows me to access it no matter >> where I'm at via another computer or even my phone. >> >> I do keep any paper copies I collect, and have been wondering about >> the value of adding a paper based system as well. I've not convinced >> myself there is enough value in doing that so I've not done it. >> >> >> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 8:44 AM, William Boswell <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > Michele: >> > >> > I understand the daunting feeling. That's why I scanned all my >> documents >> and photos years ago. I keep very few documents unless they are >> originals >> or have some historic value. All copies get scanned then tossed out. >> Even >> old negatives and photographs are scanned at the highest resolution and >> tossed. Negatives, especially color, do not hold up very long. Black >> and >> white negatives seem to last forever even ones that are about 100 years >> old. >> > >> > I still have several hundred negatives that need scanning so I know >> that >> daunting feeling because I keep putting it off. Scanning negatives is >> very >> boring and time consuming because you can't do much else while you're >> doing >> it. >> > >> > Also, if you have any old audio recordings I suggest converting all of >> them to digital. I did that for a collection of about 50 hours of audio >> interviews done back in the 1970's and noticed that the tapes were >> starting >> to degrade. They lasted nearly 30 years so I guess I can't complain. >> > >> > Bill Boswell >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] >> > Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2011 7:52 AM >> > To: [email protected] >> > Subject: [LegacyUG] Speaking of pictures >> > >> > Speaking of pictures... >> > >> > In the Marriage Record Webinar, Geoff pretty much said that he >> attaches a >> > photo (scan of a document) to every source he does. I have been >> thinking >> > about this. Right now I don't have any scans in my file and I have >> been >> > working in Legacy for 6 years (FTM before that). Since census records >> are >> > readily available, I just cite them. I do copy marriage, death, >> military, >> > land records etc. and I keep those in binders (I have a binder for >> each >> type >> > of source and then I file them alphabetically). I am trying to figure >> out >> > the wisdom of scanning everything into Legacy. I would love to hear >> your >> > opinions. I must say thinking about going back and scanning >> everything >> is >> > rather daunting. >> > >> > michele >> > >> > >> > >> > Legacy User Group guidelines: >> > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp >> > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: >> > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: >> > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp >> > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) >> and >> on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). >> > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp >> > >> > >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> James Cook >> GED Utils, Ancestry Utils >> http://loosestacks.blogspot.com/ >> >> >> Legacy User Group guidelines: >> http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp >> Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp >> Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and >> on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). >> To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp >> >> >> > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and > on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
