Working Towards Long-Term Preservation in a Non-Preservation Environment: a Case Study and Tutorial of Identifying, Replicating, and Restructuring File Organization for Permanent Storage

Abstract

When creating digital files and organizing them into folders, it is both human nature and best practice to choose a structure that feels intuitive, so that files can be added, removed, or modified easily. Although this is great for access, this flexibility makes the structure unsuitable for preservation, which is a challenge when the objects that are added, removed, or modified are preservation files. This article is a case study and tutorial for how to identify, replicate, and restructure folders for preservation, using only features that your computer already has.

Although rooted in digital preservation and featuring an included technical solution, the intended audience of this case study is librarianship in the broadest sense. This article was written so that anyone, regardless of their digital stewardship experience, technical abilities, or type of institution, will be able to follow and replicate the process themselves.