Appendix – further preservation tips
For storage of physical archives, factors to consider are temperature, relative humidity, light, pests, mould, risk of leaks or flooding, and handling. Keep archives in a climate-controlled space, avoid extremes in temperature and relative humidity.
The simplest way to protect your archive is to keep items in boxes. They provide an initial barrier to light, water, fire and mould and make handling (with clean dry hands) a lot easier. Any strong standard office boxes will work.
You can get archive-quality packaging; however, it can be expensive and will not make much of a difference if your space is humid, damp, and mouldy. Keep your archive areas clean (food attracts pests) and dust free. If you can’t store items flat, then roll them rather than folding. Avoid metal such as staples and metal paper clips (plastic paper clips are ok).
If your archive is digital, it is best to make sure that you are backing up your records regularly. Store copies of your digital archives on two separate hard drives or on hard drives as well as cloud storage.
Digital hardware and software usually last about 5 -10 years so you will need to have a plan to check and update the files and storage. Use open formats for digital files where possible like PDF (text and image), RTF (Rich Text File), ODT and ODS (Open Office), MP4 (audio), WAV (audio), JPG (image), TIFF (image), PNG (image).
The simplest way to protect your archive is to keep items in boxes. They provide an initial barrier to light, water, fire and mould and make handling (with clean dry hands) a lot easier. Any strong standard office boxes will work.
You can get archive-quality packaging; however, it can be expensive and will not make much of a difference if your space is humid, damp, and mouldy. Keep your archive areas clean (food attracts pests) and dust free. If you can’t store items flat, then roll them rather than folding. Avoid metal such as staples and metal paper clips (plastic paper clips are ok).
If your archive is digital, it is best to make sure that you are backing up your records regularly. Store copies of your digital archives on two separate hard drives or on hard drives as well as cloud storage.
Digital hardware and software usually last about 5 -10 years so you will need to have a plan to check and update the files and storage. Use open formats for digital files where possible like PDF (text and image), RTF (Rich Text File), ODT and ODS (Open Office), MP4 (audio), WAV (audio), JPG (image), TIFF (image), PNG (image).
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