Van Johnston
Pattern Altitude
TL;DR: I have an oral biography my mother made. It is currently on six CDs. What is the best way to "future proof" it so it survives advances in technology and is easily retrievable decades and centuries from now?
Long version: I've reached that stage in life where it is time to begin to de-clutter and let go and downsize. In my lifetime I've used or seen storage media go from punch cards (I even had a professor who claimed he wrote his dissertation on punch cards), to mag tape, to 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppies, HDD, USB drives, SD cards, CDs, and now the cloud. This past weekend I came across a box full of 3.5 inch floppies I've been saving for 20 years. Having lived this long without that data, I can probably live the rest of my life without it, so that's not a big deal. Then I came across the CDs with my mother's oral biography. I still have computers with CD drives; whether they will boot up and whether I have a compatible monitor is the question. So before CDs go the way of tape drives and 5.25 inch floppies I need move them to a media that is both long-lasting AND easily retrievable. I thought about the cloud, but that still relies on it being in someone's account, and that person being alive and able to share the files. I'd like this to be something that can be handed down from generation to generation.
I am thinking the best way is to transcribe it, print and bind enough copies to give one to every grandchild and great-grandchild, and hope one or more survives at least a century or two. Are there better solutions? Is there a better option than printed media? I realize even paper has a limited lifetime, but it will last longer than any electronic media I can think of.
Suggestions?
PS - Once I get this figured out, then I am thinking of donating the CDs to the library or historical society where my mother grew up. But they will have the same issue.
Long version: I've reached that stage in life where it is time to begin to de-clutter and let go and downsize. In my lifetime I've used or seen storage media go from punch cards (I even had a professor who claimed he wrote his dissertation on punch cards), to mag tape, to 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppies, HDD, USB drives, SD cards, CDs, and now the cloud. This past weekend I came across a box full of 3.5 inch floppies I've been saving for 20 years. Having lived this long without that data, I can probably live the rest of my life without it, so that's not a big deal. Then I came across the CDs with my mother's oral biography. I still have computers with CD drives; whether they will boot up and whether I have a compatible monitor is the question. So before CDs go the way of tape drives and 5.25 inch floppies I need move them to a media that is both long-lasting AND easily retrievable. I thought about the cloud, but that still relies on it being in someone's account, and that person being alive and able to share the files. I'd like this to be something that can be handed down from generation to generation.
I am thinking the best way is to transcribe it, print and bind enough copies to give one to every grandchild and great-grandchild, and hope one or more survives at least a century or two. Are there better solutions? Is there a better option than printed media? I realize even paper has a limited lifetime, but it will last longer than any electronic media I can think of.
Suggestions?
PS - Once I get this figured out, then I am thinking of donating the CDs to the library or historical society where my mother grew up. But they will have the same issue.