Managing
Digital
Research

Heidi Dowding

Digital Preservation Librarian

Two Tales of Sorrow...

A humanist with a problem of scale:

A poor digital preservationist:

The Outcome is the Same:

You may ask yourself, how did i get here?

  • Obsolescence
  • Hardware Failure
  • Third-Party Loss (Out of business, hacking)
  • Poor organization

A Sustainable Workflow

  • Identify and Select
  • Describe
  • Store and Protect
  • Manage Over Time

Identify: What do you have?

  • Downloaded research materials
  • In-production files (notes, articles, dissertation)
  • Images
  • Data (GIS, CSV)
  • Email
  • Audio/Visual
  • Software
  • ???

Identify: Where is it?

 

  • Online? in Email? in Zotero?

 

  • On external hard drives? USBs? CDs? FLOPPIES?!?

 

  • On different computers?

An Aside

  • Zero Inboxing
  • Setting Rules

Select: What Do you Need?

  • Long-term and important assets should be managed differently than quick downloads or other files.

 

  • What will you need for future research/jobs?

Describe

Good file names and organizational structures make it easy to locate, manage, and use your research.

File Naming Recommendations

  • Keep it short.

 

  • Add structural elements to help locate the file.
  • Only use underscores (_) and hyphens (-).

 

  • Order information by importance.

http://library.stanford.edu/research/data-management-services/data-best-practices/best-practices-file-naming

Folder Structures

  • How you access files will determine how you organize them.
  • Use the same file structure on every computer/storage device.
  • Minimize the amount of sub-folder AND file - containing folders.
  • Create a cheat sheet.

A Personal Example

File Formats

There is no perfect file format, but these are some things to consider:

  • Is it proprietary or open source?
  • Is the format widely used?
  • Are older versions of the format still readable?
  • Does it support your needs?

Store and Protect

  • When you download/transfer a file, open and double-check that it opens and is accurate.

 

  • Keep multiple copies in different locations:
    • 3-2-1: 3 copies, 2 types of storage media, 1 different location

Storage Media

Computers: 3 years, then 12% Annual failure rate

External hard drives: Same as computers, but more likely to be hit with wear and tear

USBs: 10,000 writes, but more likely to be lost

CDs/DVDs: 2-20 years, in good conditions

Storage @ 

Scholarly Data Archive (SDA)

  • Disk-to-tape storage
  • Distributed copies
  • For long-term storage

 

Box@IU

  • Cloud storage
  • Distributed copies
  • For collaboration and working files

Storage: The Cloud

 

Google Drive

Amazon Web Services

Dropbox

Tresorit

Things to consider:

  • Managing confidential data
  • Data integrity

Manage Over Time

  • Save the original, work with a copy.
  • Be aware of digital preservation issues with your digital research. Stay vigilant.
  • Document everything.

Tools and Resources

http://slides.com/heididowding/mdr 

Heidi Dowding | Wells Library W501-D2

heidowdi@indiana.edu

Managing Digital Research

By Heidi Dowding

Made with Slides.com

Managing Digital Research

Presentation given at Indiana University on October 16, 2015 entitled Managing Digital Research.

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