Image storage and permanence considerations in the long-term preservation of photographic images – update 2010

Abstract

Archivists and consumers, alike, need to become aware of long-term storage and preservation issues that relate to the preservation of the data behind digital photographic images. The more obvious issues, such as accidental or catastrophic data loss and hardware format evolution, are only now being recognized in the archiving community. Consumers need to be alerted to these issues and be prepared to develop preservation strategies as well. However, longer-term issues beyond routine backup and migration of data need to be considered. The very basic solution of preservation via hardcopy images stored in shoeboxes or albums is one option, but this raises a fundamental question regarding image preservation that transcends even the more complex solutions—the long-term stability of the chosen media, whether digital or analog. This paper discusses archiving and preservation as it relates to images, and the data behind those images, along with historical perspectives and an overview of possible longer-term preservation strategies [1–3]. The importance of image permanence standards, as they relate to overall selection of preservation strategies, will also be discussed.