All storage media is corruptible, analog and digital, so multiple copies reduce the risk that the recordings will be lost to corruption.
The technology for playing back recordings changes with time, so migrate some copies of the recordings to current technology, both hardware and encoding (type of digital format).
Multiple storage locations, including online services, reduce the risk of lost due to a local disaster, such as fire, flood, transient electromagnetic disturbance, civil unrest, war, etc.
"Data storage lifespans: How long will media really last?” is a short article for various digital media.
https://www.arcserve.com/blog/data-storage-lifespans-how-long-will-media-really-lastYep, this is one more thing that needs to be added to your routine schedule.
Sincerely,
Clif
Clifton Patrick
Town of Chester Historian
119 Brookside Ave.
Chester, County of Orange
New York 10918
direct phone/fax 845-469-7645
chester-ny.gov/town-departments/historian/
Original Message:
Sent: 3/15/2023 12:17:00 PM
From: Christie Jovanovic
Subject: Oral History Interviews
Hi All,
I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on the best way to house oral history interviews digitally? We have a (relatively) small collection of interviews done in the 90s through to present day, with the older originals being beta and VHS and the more recent ones born digital. Some of the VHS/beta interviews have been converted into a digital format (though the files are quite large). We have a CMS for the Museum's collection, but I'm unsure whether it is the best place to also house the digitals for the testimony. Our CMS doesn't really lend itself to accessing audio/video files easily, and also some of the files are quite large, im wondering if they need their own system or software to live on (and if there are suggestions as to the best route to go here).
Thanks!
Christie
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