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Louise shared her insights on digital archiving:
· Archives can include photos, videos, notes, journals, letters, papers. They are found on thumb drives, on hard drives, on external drives, in garages, at work, at home, almost anywhere.
- Physical media deteriorates quickly:
- Photographs fade almost immediately.
- Film are “transparencies” that disintegrate over time.
- External drives/thumb drives are prone to failure, and break easily.
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Prioritize vulnerable media first, especially film and photos. They are more probe to disintegrate and lose quality in a short period of time. “The more time you can spend on your archival process the better the result, and the less it will cost”.
- Do not throw away your physical archive—digitization requires a preservation plan.
Best Practices:
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Save images in TIFF format (archival and long-term stability but only for digital images).
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Keep a set in JPG format for easy sharing and transfer via email.
- Always include cloud storage as part of your preservation plan. (I’ll bet a lot of former residents of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades wished that they had done this!)
- Think about 100-year preservation, not just 10 years.
- How do I share my digital archive? Sharing options can include: printed books, simple websites, or PDFs.
Tips & Tools:
- USC Digital Library offers professional archiving services at reasonable rates, utilizing industry standards.
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Scanner: Epson 850 recommended.
- Slide cleaning: Use compressed air before scanning.
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Video: MP4 is a good archival format.
- Louise also consults privately for family archiving projects.
Questions followed, with a focus on the actual process, the specific formats and a recommendation for equipment.
Next Week:
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Speaker: Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky on September 11th.
- Ben encourages everyone to arrive early; she will begin speaking promptly at 12:15.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:31pm by President Ben.
With apologies for the format that A.I. used,
Respectfully,
PP Mark Rogo
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