Hi All,
I have been slow to respond, but I had discussed this topic with the IWG leadership team as mentioned by Wendy. While this is not suggesting solutions, I just wanted to touch on experience. I have done some event and portrait photography both commercially and for friends and family over the years along with graduate schoolwork that extends beyond institutional data storage. While the event and portrait photography is not the same subject matter as conservation documentation, they are still images that need to be stored and taken care of over time. While RAID systems would be better practice and a great way to go, this was something that I never set up independently. There were the challenges of keeping multiple copies of images and files on different hard drives and ensuring that those were duplicated but also maintained. This can be challenging with multiple hard drives over the years, and I am sure there are some folks out there who have established great practices for ensuring duplication and maintenance. (These practices could be interesting to share/hear.) Time Machine was a tool I used on my personal Mac to ensure I had a regular backup of my computer. Having a good organization system (folder structure and file naming) that is easily cross-checked between drives is also beneficial for the duplication and maintenance. I organize files based on date starting with year and then numerical month (e.g., 01 for January), so that these fall into chronological order. (This is more appropriate for event photography and different from my institutional organization which is based on project number.) I have also used spreadsheets that track what files are on which drives. Another consideration was keeping one copy of the files in a separate location, which can be challenging. This may not directly answer any of Wendy's questions, but I hope it speaks to at least some of the challenges/considerations of file storage outside an institutional storage system.
Best,
Keats
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E. Keats Webb
Imaging Scientist
Museum Conservation Institute
Smithsonian Institution
Suitland, MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-29-2024 05:59
From: Wendy Rose
Subject: Monthly imaging question - February
Thanks for the recommendation, Adam!
The IWG Leadership Team had a great discussion about this in one of our meetings, and it was honestly kind of reassuring to hear that this is something we all struggle with, in and out of institutions.
Anyone in an institution have any struggles/solutions do data management we could learn from?
Cheers,
Wendy
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Wendy Rose
Alexandria VA
Original Message:
Sent: 02-19-2024 15:29
From: Adam Neese
Subject: Monthly imaging question - February
Hi Wendy,
I have used and would recommend two types outside of an enterprise-level system; either a RAID or a NAS (Network Attached Storage). The NAS is essentially a small server with multiple hard drives set up as a redundant array of independent disks, but you can connect to it via an ethernet connection.
The NAS requires some networking knowledge but is quite robust. The two biggest players in the game are Synology and QNAP.
Adam
--
Adam Neese (he/him)
Senior Collections Photographer for Conservation
The David Booth Conservation Department
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
+1 (212) 708 8455
+1 (817) 703 9101 mobile
adam_neese@moma.org
Change is Modern. Discover something new every day at MoMA.
Original Message:
Sent: 2/16/2024 1:23:00 PM
From: Wendy Rose
Subject: Monthly imaging question - February
Hi IWG!
Thank you all for your great responses and discussion on Multiband Imaging / False Color Imaging analysis in January! Everyone's perspectives and experiences are so welcome, and there's always more we can learn!
So here's my question for February:
Perhaps like many of you, especially in private practice/freelance, I have a steadily growing collection of external hard drives holding all of my images and imaging projects along with a separate drive as a backup. What are some ways that you are managing data storage if you don't have access to an institutional storage system beyond external hard drives? And how do you physically store these drives long term?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Wendy - AIC IWG Wiki Lead
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Wendy Rose
Alexandria VA
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