What happened to last year's programs?

As summer begins to merge into fall, librarians start gearing up for a new school year. You may breath a sigh of relief that the summer reading program you spent so much time designing has been a huge success, but next summer will you remember what you did? One of the problems with putting so much of our work online is that digital materials often get erased, pictures of programs are scattered and lost, outlines of storytimes are passed around by email and eventually deleted and forgotten. Do we really want all of this history to disappear? Librarians are experts at preserving information, and the digital materials in our libraries are essential parts of our information. Let's make an effort to preserve the best of what we do.

At least twice a year, someone in the library should go through the materials that have accumulated--pictures, program plans, videos--and assess them for preservation. You'll find a wealth of information on how to do that at the Library of Congress's digital preservation site. LC has prepared a short video outlining the steps to take to preserve your digital files:
1. identify the files you have created
2. decide which ones you want to save
3. organize an Archive folder perhaps with sub-folders for different types of material
4. and then backup your files

Probably the best place to backup your archive files is on an external hard drive which can be stored in a location outside of the library. LC suggests making two or possibly three copies of the hard drive and storing them in various locations.

All this is extra work on top of your already busy days, but it will pay off when you find you have a record of the highlights of what your department has been doing. You can retrieve materials that can be used again. You can find pictures from years ago that form the basis of an exhibit of how the library has grown and changed. And individual librarians can find records of the professional work they have done. These are all valuable results. We don't want our work to disappear leaving no trace. Try setting up a system now so that future librarians can appreciate the past they are building on. It's well worth the effort!