Module 3: Part 3
Basic Preservation Techniques for Digital Records
In previous lessons, we’ve talked about the importance of organizing your materials; making copies, ideally physical and digital; and distributing those copies to keep your stuff safe. We also mentioned that the initial work of classifying, ordering, and selecting the things you want to keep will likely take more time than the periodic checkups on how your collections are doing. In this lesson, we want to focus on those first steps: how to begin with protecting your digital records.
First, we want you to identify where you have your documents. In our research, most of the veterans we talked to divided their records across different formats, digital and physical, and their copies were not consistent. In other words, the stuff they kept in digital format was not always the same they had in print. We suggest that you take the time to check what you have, paying particular attention to those records for which you have no copies elsewhere. Then, decide what documents have long-term value. For instance, DD-214 forms are highly valuable in the long term because they may help prove to the VA that you served. However, there are also records whose value is more specific to your own circumstances. You alone can decide which are those.
For records that are only in digital, proprietary format (e.g., word or photoshop files), we strongly encourage you to export them to open-source formats (e.g., RTF for word documents or NPG for images). Then, we suggest that you organize the selected information, consolidate a full copy of all the essential records, and make copies of it. Then, distribute those complete copies across different places, services, and locations such as cloud services, social media, and local storage devices (see module 2 for further references on the pros and cons of each option). Finally, make physical copies of select digital items when applicable, such as text-based materials and still images. In the remainder of this lesson, we’ll go over some format-specific advice to handle your digital records.
Images
For photographs and other types of still images, start by deciding which of those are most important and where they are located. For your physical photos, make sure you also have digital versions. Otherwise, digitize your images. Alternatively, if you have digital copies only, make sure you have or create copies of those records in open formats such as JPEG200 or TIFF. You may have several copies of the same image. Discarding copies of the same record is fine, but keep the highest resolution at your disposal. Also, print the most important items. Be sure to tag your photos with essential information such as who, where, when, and what appears on the image. Ideally, try to print at the highest resolution. If you don’t have access to a scanner or a printer, most public libraries offer these services. While such services are often charged, the fees at a library may be lower than at private retailers such as shipping providers (e.g., FedEx, UPS) and office supply stores (e.g., Office Depot, Best Buy). Once the previous steps are complete, make full copies of your image collection and store them in different places such as pen drives, hard drives, or the cloud. Review and update your collection annually.
Once again, identify all your email accounts. Decide which messages have long-term value. Export the selected messages using the features of your email client solution. One way to do this is to create a separate folder to copy the messages you want to save. Then, you can export all messages from the selected folder in an open format like JSON (in the case of Gmail) or CSV (in the case of outlook). Both formats can be opened with plain text editors such as notepad or spreadsheet editors like excel. The advantage of a global export of all your data is that it saves you time, but you won’t have the same look and feel as how the message looked in your web client. Alternatively, if you want a record of your message that closely resembles its layout, you can simply print the file, and rather than sending it to an actual printer, you can choose to save the message as a PDF. The disadvantage of this option is that you would have to save your important messages one at a time. How to download your Google data
Chats
Most messaging applications include options that allow you to export your conversations in bulk. If you have a feature phone (e.g., a basic Nokia phone), you will need a SIM Card reader. Open your phone case and remove the SIM card. You may need to remove the battery to get to the SIM Card in some cases. Then, insert the card into the SIM Card reader. You’ll find messages in a plain text (.txt) file. Copy it to your hard drive.
These days, however, we use smartphones. To back up messages from your messaging apps, follow these steps:
WhatsApp -> Enter chat to archive -> Settings -> More -> Export chat -> Save .txt file -> Transfer to hard drive
Signal -> Home screen -> Settings ->Chats -> Enable backups -> Write down 30-digit passphrase -> Go to backups directory -> transfer .sqlite file to hard drive -> read db with SQLite Manager or SQLite Browser -> Export chat to .txt
Facebook (FB). Loging to FB on web browser -> Settings -> Your information -> Unselect everything -> Select messenger only -> request download -> go to Available Files tab -> download file -> unzip
Social Media
Follow the following directions to download content from each of the major social media sites:
Websites
For webpages, the first step is to locate all the websites you want to save. As an end-user, you can always save your files by pressing CRLT + S. In the dialog box, select “save as webpage, complete”). This will create an HTML file and an accompanying folder with supporting files. Both taken together will allow you to view the landing page as you would with an internet connection. Bear in mind that functionality may be lost when you save a web page this way. For instance, if there is an embedded video on the page, you may see its thumbnail and play icon on top, but you won’t be able actually to play it. See the next section for dealing with audio and video files for further reference. If you have server access to the website, simply log in using an FTP client, locate the website folder, and copy it to your local drive.
Saving webpages in full will allow you to access the closest experience to the actual website at the time you saved it: the look and feel and the interactive components, such as hovering over links or animated GIFs. Bear in mind, however, that web technologies change constantly. Future versions of the browser and the servers may not read as well in the future. To preserve the content of your website in the long term, you can also save web pages as pdfs (CRLT + S -> Save as pdf). This solution ensures that your content will be accessible long-term, but pdf exports of webpages distort its layout.
Alternatively, you take screenshots of a webpage. The downside is that you would need to take several screenshots of the same landing page and stitch them together manually to keep the content. A workaround for this issue is using a chrome extension such as Blingshot, which automatically does the work of taking multiple screenshots of the same landing page, stitches them together, and allows you to preserve the look and feel of the page. The downside, in this case, is that any textual elements are not editable, and like with pdf copies, the webpage snapshot is not editable. Finally, you can choose a combination of the methods above depending on what aspects of the website you want to preserve.
If you are trying to access a website that no longer exists or a previous version of a website, you can try to find it on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Audio and video
Once you have located all your audio and video files, migrate them to open formats such as Ogg for audio and MP4 or MKV for video. Prioritize lossless codecs, such as H.264, whenever possible. This means that if your files are in a proprietary format, such as AVI for videos, or MP3 for audio, you will need to convert them. Unfortunately, while there are free video editing tools, the range of formats and codes that they can import and export is limited. There best solutions for this type of task are proprietary software such as Adobe Premiere, Adobe Elements, or Final Cut. Once again, we encourage you to reach out to your public library, as some libraries have media labs where you can access professional video editing software. Many of these programs offer a trial period, which you can also take advantage of.
HandBrake is an open-source tool for transcoding video and can effectively help you convert from nearly any format into a selection of widely supported codecs.
Fortunately, suppose your only goal for using an audio editing solution is only importing and exporting formats. In that case, there is an open and free program called Audacity that can help you. While you can do a lot with Audacity, including basic editing and processing, you may need to consider more professional solutions such as Adobe Audition or Pro Tools if you need advanced editing. Once again, your local library may help you, or you could rely on the free trial period.
Bear in mind that employing lossless codecs when you export audio and video to an open format will preserve the most information but doing so will also consume a lot of storage space. Depending on how much media you have, the costs of keeping uncompressed copies may strain your budget. Thus, creating your media collection will involve a balance between your budget, the size of your collection (how many files you want to keep), and their quality (what’s the maximum degree of information compression that you are willing to accept and how much can you invest in storage space).
Chances are that some of your media files are currently stored only on the web. If you have YouTube videos, for instance, you can download them to your local drive as long as you have access to your YouTube/Gmail account. On the YouTube homepage, click on the icon of your account on the top right corner. Then, select the “manage your account” blue button on the upper right. You’ll see a list of your videos. When you hover over the title you want to download, a series of icons will appear. To the right, select the three vertical dots. A contextual menu will appear. The download option is there.
Alternatively, if you have misplaced your credentials from your YouTube account, you can use many of the free services available to download YouTube videos, such as Y2mate. Just copy the video URL into the URL bar on the service’s home page. Then, select the format and video quality you wish, wait for the server to perform the conversion, and then select “download.” You can use similar solutions to download audio from other services, such as sound cloud.