Throughout this course, we have asked you to think about what records you have and which ones you would like to keep. We insist on this because we want you to start with a good diagnosis of your situation to make your life easier later. A good diagnosis of your situation begins with determining the condition of your collection: Where is your stuff? How concentrated or scattered is it? Are your records still accessible or legible? Are you missing anything you need? If so, how do you get it? Figuring out these questions is the first step.

Then, determine the necessary preservation actions. For instance, as we covered in module 2, you may need to migrate your data to open formats and create new copies. In addition, should you find missing records, think through ways to fill the gaps whenever possible. For instance, if you are missing your DD214 form or similar service records, you can request a copy through the VA or the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Suppose you are missing personal records such as emails. In that case, you may try reaching out to friends who received the messages (at least for select threads) or maybe to the IT departments in your unit, base, or branch. Unfortunately, there are some records that you may not retrieve. Still, the sooner you begin this exercise, the better chances you’ll have at finding solutions.

Now that you have completed identifying the state of your collection and filled in the gaps to the best of your ability, you can think about future preservation needs. For instance, how old are the hard drives where you keep your materials? When was the last time you logged in to dropbox or your cloud-storage service of choice? Have you heard of any changes to their terms of service? For files of specialized software such as photoshop or adobe premiere, do you have non-editable copies in high-quality resolution, and can you afford the storage to keep those copies?

Always try to keep the editable files, but also make sure you have a copy on the latest version of the format. Verify if the software for the said format is still up-to-date. If it will be discontinued, think about alternative software. For instance, in the case of vector graphic editors, Macromedia FreeHand used to be an Adobe Illustrator competitor. Freehand was launched in 1988, and its latest iteration came out in 2003. In 2005, however, the Adobe Corporation purchased Macromedia and discontinued Freehand. Freehand users had the option to migrate their files to illustrator. Other programs may experience similar fates, so you must stay vigilant.

The final ingredient of your diagnosis consists of selecting the best preservation strategies for your situation and prioritizing them. How much of your collection is only in digital format? How much in analog format? In either case, for which records do you only have one copy? Then, what’s your budget for your preservation plan? Bear in mind that the initial steps, such as purchasing boxes, binders, hard drives, online subscriptions, and such tend to be more expensive upfront, but maintenance costs tend to be lower.

Remember to balance your physical and digital storage space with your budget. If you need to keep all your physical records and local drives at home, make sure you have space to keep everything and that you can afford it. In terms of physical storage, you may also need to budget for some investments, such as installing shelves in your basement or installing hardware to control temperature and humidity. If you live in a flood-prone area, you may also need to invest in insulation for your storage room. On the other hand, if you live in a fire or hurricane-prone area, you may need to invest in transportation to relocate your collection, such as a truck.  

Finally, you must also budget in terms of time investment. Bear in mind that setting up the collection is bound to take far longer than periodically checking on it. Also, the time investment may depend on the granularity of the initial steps, such as appraising and organizing files. For instance, in the case of digital files, you may save some time by using the Bulk Rename Utility, which will save you from renaming hundreds or even thousands of files one at a time.

End of Module 3

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the third module. Before moving on, click the link below to test what you’ve learned so far. You can also complete the final worksheet by accessing it here.

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