Resources

Guide Index

NLB print and digital resources
Websites
Videos
Information guide on caring for your digital collections

This is a selection of resources on digital preservation available from the NLB catalogue or the Internet and is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

NLB print and digital resources

Saving your digital past, present and future: A step-by-step guide

In this digital age, we generate and store a large volume of personal digital information like notes, photos and videos on portable devices and personal computers. This ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to organise, manage and preserve your personal digital information. The author explains what personal information management is and introduces common tools and best practices used to manage information.

Retrieved from OverDrive. (myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.)

Take control of your digital legacy

Learn about the need for the preservation of digital data from this ebook, which looks at how you can plan and manage your digital legacy. The author details the process of compiling one’s digital assets, documenting a personalised digital will, and preserving the data to pass on to future generations.

Retrieved from OverDrive. (myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.)

Digital preservation for libraries, archives and museums

This book is intended as a practical guide for libraries, archives and museums to preserve their digital content for long term access. It explains what digital preservation is as well as its management, curation, technology and content-related aspects.

Libraries and archives in the digital age

Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age contains a compilation of essays that discusses the digital future of libraries and archives. It is categorised into four sections covering access, preservation and community, archival politics and digital practice.

Retrieved from OverDrive. (myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.)

The complete guide to personal digital archiving

This book is a collection of essays related to the management and preservation of personal digital archives. It covers the best practices for personal digital archives, case studies of community-based archiving and academic-based archiving as well as ethical implications of personal data.

The no-nonsense guide to born-digital content

The No-Nonsense Guide to Born Digital Content provides entry level tips and advice for librarians and archivists involved in collecting and preserving born-digital content. It discusses the policies and processes for managing born-digital content and includes case studies collected from various institutions around the world.

How to archive family photos: A step-by-step guide to organize and share your photos digitally

In this book, the author shares tips on how to archive your family photograph collection, including steps on organising and managing digital photos, best practices for digitising and preserving original photos, and using digital photos to create photo projects for sharing with the future generations.

Retrieved from OverDrive. (myLibrary ID is required to access this ebook.)

Websites

Introduction to Digitizing and Organizing Family Photos and Documents

Learn how you can preserve your family’s history via this guide, which explains the importance of organising and digitising family photographs and documents and provides easy-to-follow steps on how you can begin your own journey to scan, organise and manage a slice of your family history.

Caring for your collections: Digital collections

This guide by the State Library of South Australia provides a basic explanation and recommendation on how you can ensure the long-term survival of personal digital materials of various formats. It also provides a set of tips on how personal digital memories can be preserved.

Digital preservation handbook

The Digital Preservation Coalition is an organisation from the United Kingdom that advocates digital preservation. Written for individuals and institutions with the responsibility of preserving digital materials, this handbook is a comprehensive guide covering all aspects of digital preservation.

Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch publications

The Digital Preservation Coalition is an organisation from the United Kingdom that advocates digital preservation. These publications consist of in-depth reference guides and bite-sized papers that provide guidance on a variety of digital preservation topics, such as audio-visual, email and social media preservation.

What is digital curation?

The Digital Curation Centre is a world-leading centre of expertise in digital information curation. Read about what digital curation is, why it is important to preserve digital data and how the Digital Curation Lifecycle Model defines the management, curation and preservation of data.

Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement − 2023−2024

This statement released by the Library of Congress is a list of recommended formats for the long-term preservation of a variety of works such as textual, still image, moving image, audio and musical scores. The latest release is the 2023−2024 version.

Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress collections

The Sustainability of Digital Formats website provides information about various aspects related to the formats of digital content, including sustainability factors and the evaluation of formats. The analyses and resources presented here are updated periodically.

Community Owned digital Preservation Tool Registry (COPTR)

A comprehensive resource on digital preservation tools created by and for the international digital preservation community with more than 500 preservation tools including information on their functionality, licensing, provenance and user experiences.

File format assessments Wiki

This is a collaboration by The British Library, Library of Congress, Harvard Library, National Archives and Records Administration and Digital Preservation Coalition to coordinate and make available their file format assessments. It is a valuable resource to understand specific file formats and its preservation risks.

How to preserve family archives (papers and photographs)

These guides from the United States National Archives and Records Administration contain archiving tips on preserving family papers and photographs, including how to handle, store, display, digitise and repair original items. In particular, the guide on digitisation highlights some considerations to note when digitising papers and photographs.

Fundamentals of AV preservation

This textbook, developed by AVPreserve (now known as AVP) and the Northeast Document Conservation Center, covers topics on audio-visual preservation including the care and handling of physical carriers, inventory and assessment, digitisation, management of digital audio-visual collections and disaster planning.

Museum of obsolete media

This website is a catalogue of current and obsolete physical media formats for audio, video, film and data storage. It provides a brief description of each format and includes information on its media stability and obsolescence ratings.

Digital archiving of film & video: Principles and guidance

This document, published by Memoriav, outlines some recommendations in the handling of digital audio-visual data as well as advice on digitisation and digital archiving of film and video for archivists, curators and those in the media production sector.

From grain to pixel: The archival life of film in transition

In the third revised edition of From Grain to Pixel, author Giovanna Fossati examines the transition from analogue to digital film and its impacts on filmmaking and film archiving. In particular, she looks at the practices of the preservation, restoration and presentation of film and current developments in the field.

International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)

The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) is a professional association which advocates the development of the best professional standards and practice on the care, access and long-term preservation of the world’s sound and moving image heritage. Read more about the standards on the production and preservation of digital audio objects, handling and storage of audio and video carriers as well as guidelines for the preservation of video recordings.

Creating preservable websites

These best practices by the Library of Congress provide tips on designing your website so that archiving institutions can preserve it as successfully as possible.

IIPC beginner’s level training course in web archiving

An online training course by the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), this website contains training materials that outline what web archives are, why they are important and how they work.

Videos

Preserving your digital treasures

As new technologies emerge and existing ones become obsolete, there is a need to manage our personal digital assets to ensure ongoing accessibility. This video by the State Library of Queensland outlines an approach to archiving and managing personal digital collections like audio, video, text and photos to keep them accessible for the future.

Saving your [digital] life: How to preserve your digital photos and memories

This video is a presentation by Tricia Patterson, Digital Preservation Analyst at Harvard Library, who shares why digital preservation is important and what the risks to digital materials are. It also introduces good practices for digitising and preserving digital materials.

Say hello to Web Archive Singapore

This is an introductory video to Web Archive Singapore (WAS). Managed by the National Library Board, WAS preserves Singapore websites, even those that are no longer active. From events to people, organisations to historical milestones, WAS is a comprehensive collection of websites covering various aspects of life in Singapore.

Information guide on caring for your digital collections

The Caring for Your Digital Collections guide offers useful tips on how you can ensure that your digital materials can be accessed in the future. View the guide here.