Personal Archives

The Council on Library and Information Resources report on Archiving Digital Information produced a landmark analysis of the needs and challenges in digital preservation. Among the findings, the task force highlights the critical role that filmmakers play in preservation of their own materials.

Archives collect materials that conform to the mission and collection policies of the particular institutione, and declining funding and escalating costs limit the number of donations an archive can accept. Personal digital archiving is the only option for most independent filmmakers, as many may not find an archive to collect their work. There are commercial and free tools available.

Commercial

Commercial back-up tools are not tools for long-term digital preservation. They are simply online folder systems - they provide no organizational context or extended metadata for a collection. They are a good option if you have no access to other cloud services, since they do provide geographic dispersal.

  • Using a web service will also entail compression and decompression of files when migrated, which may result in loss of original digital data.

  • Online services may be private or open, but check the security or other standards declarations before trusting your archives to an online vendor.

  • Ensure that personal data, like social security numbers or identifying information, is protected through a written guarantee.

Trusted digital repositories provide long-term access and preservation of digital data, and are certified through the Center for Research Libraries, and they are usually partnered with large academic, commercial or research institutions. If you have an association with a large institution, inquire about archiving your materials through the institution.

Free

The most widely recognized free service is the Internet Archive (IA). The IA is available to anyone at any time, but provides no intellectual rights protection and all materials deposited in the IA are freely available to the world. The mission of the IA is open access. Materials submitted to the IA, and any archive, should be past their useful life. Try not to mix up active project files and archives in the same place.

If copyright and intellectual control are an issue, be aware of the risks when archiving materials with open, online services.