GETTING REAL |
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collection would remain available for decades to come. All 3,000+
scanned photos are stored on my main computer and backed up
onto two other hard drives. One of those backup drives is stored
in a fire-proof safe along with a set of CDs of the same photos.
Since CDs don’t last forever, they are replaced every few years.
What about when technology changes? I’ll change with them.
When I started using computers, the only storage medium was
5¼" floppy disks. They were soon replaced by hard drives and
3½" disks which eventually succumbed to CDs. Each time, it
was a simple matter to copy data from one medium to the next.
As the size of USB flash drives continues to increase, I’ll begin
using them as backup drives.
More importantly, copies of my entire collection have been shared
with several friends in various places through the United States
and even Europe. These sets are updated once or twice a year so
that they include the most recent additions. This decentralization
provides insurance against natural disasters, computer crashes,
and other unforeseen problems.
One additional suggestion if you have a large collection of pro-
totype photos – what happens to that collection when you are
no longer around? If the collection is centered on a prototype for
which there is a popular following and an active historical society,
the answer may be fairly simple.
My prototype doesn’t have such a following but I’ve already decided
(and included provisions in our Trust) to have the entire collection
donated to the California State Railroad Museum Library.
The fact that my prototype existed in California was partly a factor,
but the fact that the Library stores its collections properly, indexes
