Personal digital archiving for journalists: a “private” solution to a public problem
| Published date | 19 November 2018 |
| Date | 19 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2017-0184 |
| Pages | 573-582 |
| Author | Rachel King |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Personal digital archiving for
journalists: a “private”solution
to a public problem
Rachel King
Library, Long Island University, New York City, New York, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to encourage librarians to teach digital archiving practices to
journalists as a way of giving journalists the skills they need to save their work for future use and to facilitate
the preservation of journalism for posterity.
Design/methodology/approach –The author has reviewed the personal digital archiving literature and
analyzed how it might be specifically tailored to the unique needs of journalists.
Findings –Daily journalism has traditionally been preserved by libraries in the form of newspapers and
magazines housed in library periodicals departments. Now that nearly all journalism is published online and
libraries generally only have access via temporary subscriptions, libraries are prevented from doing any kind
of traditional preservation work (e.g. storing copies locally). In the future, this lack of local preservation may
lead to a shortage of early twenty-first century primary source material for historians.
Research limitations/implications –The needs of journalists do vary greatly based on the nature and
format of their work and its publication venue, making it difficult to offer a single set of standards or
recommendations.
Originality/value –While personal digital archiving advocates have generally interpreted the word
“personal”to be synonymous with “private,”this paper points to the need to expand the concept to include
professional activities, particularly in light of the prevalence of telecommuting and freelance work
arrangements, and the lack of support and training received by remote workers and independent contractors.
Keywords Digital libraries, Digital preservation, Personal digital archiving, Digital journalism,
Digital news, Newspaper publishing
Paper type General review
Introduction
Increasingly, Americans’most precious information –text, photos, and multimedia –is
stored digitally. While this allows computer users to store huge amounts of material while
avoiding physical clutter in their homes and offices, digital information has the
disadvantage of being fragile: files can easily be lost or damaged. The field of personal
digital archiving has grown over the past decade in response to the problem of data loss and
the public’s relative lack of knowledge about the potential risks to their stored files. Many
librarians and archivists have been teaching patrons and stakeholders the ins and outs of
protecting their digital files. One striking feature of the personal digital archiving field is the
fact that the books, articles, and websites devoted to the topic tend to treat the word
“personal”as synonymous with the word “private.”Williams et al. (2009) exemplify this
tendency when they write, “We adopt the term ‘personal digital archives’to refer to these
informal, diverse, and expanding memory collections created or acquired and accumulated
and maintained by individuals in the course of their personal lives, and belonging to them,
rather than to their institutions or other places of work.”Many writing on this topic either
unconsciously or consciously define personal digital archives in a similar way. They give
advice on the long-term storage for the appurtenances of private life, for example, family
photos and legal documents. They put less or no emphasis on items that are professional in
nature. However, it is a reality of contemporary American life that freelancers and casual
laborers make up a huge part of the workforce. Their “places of work”are located in their
homes, or perhaps at nearby libraries or cafés. It has been estimated that more than a third
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 36 No. 4, 2018
pp. 573-582
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-09-2017-0184
Received 5 September 2017
Revised 4 April 2018
Accepted 11 April 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
573
Personal
digital
archiving for
journalists
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