The last few weeks have been full of deadly natural disasters across the United States. There was Hurricane Harvey, we’re bracing for Hurricane Irma, and my home state of Oregon is on fire.

When you listen to the accounts of devastation you hear the universal grief over loss of life, loss of home, and loss of family treasures. While loss of life isn’t always in our control, and loss of home can partially be recovered through insurance or other avenues, it’s the loss of family treasures that is perhaps the easiest to prevent and the hardest to recover. Now is a good time to prepare for when a natural disaster strikes, and below I provide suggestions and resources on how to do it.

The two most common disasters to prepare for are fire and water. In either scenario you will most likely need to evacuate your home. If you have the luxury of time to prepare for a disaster, you can use these tips to be ready for evacuation:

• Purchase a...

October 12, 2017

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune discussed how the Obama Presidential Library would be used for forums, workshops, and programs. “Where’s the papers?” one reasonably asks? Well, the papers will be online, because everything (almost) is digital.

If you don’t have a digital backup plan in place for your business and personal papers (digital records) then you might be tempting the universe to break your computer, and I hope you don’t live in an area prone to natural disasters. If you’ve never implemented a digital backup plan for your digital records it can be overwhelming to vet an appropriate system, determine how much digital storage space you need, create a digital infrastructure for your digital file system, and set an appropriate backup mechanism. But don’t worry – I’m here to help. First, you need to choose a system, and I have two recommendations for you that can scale to your needs and...

Earlier this month, we explored digital backups and how to choose a tool that’s right for you in the post: Digital Backup: No More Excuses. The next two steps go hand in hand: 1. establish or fine-tuning your digital file structure; and 2. calculate how much space you need in a digital backup tool.

1. Establish a Digital File Structure: Determining how much space you need (and setting up the file synching function) will be so much easier when your digital files are organized. Are your digital files splashed across your desktop for easy access,? Or, are they meticulously filed in multiple layers of sub-file folders? Depending on your work, what files you create, what they’re for, and how often – will lend itself to different organizational schemes and is something to seriously consider. However, the best approach for the majority of digital file owners is to have a file folder system with limited use of sub-folders. Consistent naming of...

February 21, 2018

This is the third and last post of the introductory Digital Backup series. If you’re reading this post, make sure you’ve read Digital Backup: No More Excuses, and Digital Backup: Space and Infrastructure.

Now that you’ve determined the size of the digital space you need, selected a digital backup tool, and your files are organized, you’re ready to setup your backup mechanism!

The backup mechanism for many digital platforms are roughly the same. You can elect to have all of your files synched to your digital backup platform, and anytime you access the file the synched version will update within seconds of any changes you make. Automated synching anytime there’s a file change is ideal as it will guarantee every file change is documented. Other backup platforms can offer incremental backups and it depends on your individual needs as far as how often that should happen. I recommend you backup actively used files regularly, and...

A couple of weeks ago, it was my responsibility to deliver bad news to a couple dozen people. This is an already challenging time for many and I was very sensitive to how I was about to make them feel. You see, the Archivist-in-Residence (AiR) program, received 10 highly qualified joint applications and we could only pick one. (Joint meaning a new professional and host site applied as a team = 20+ people). This meant that not only were we rejecting grant applications, we were also rejecting job applicants.

Prepare Your Compassionate Rejection Ahead of Time

The AiR team is comprised of highly emotionally intelligent people and we decided a couple months ago (pre-COVID) that we wanted to offer support to the applicants who weren’t selected. This decision is in keeping with our mission which is to advocate for new professionals in the field and support the institutions who are working to build paid internships. When I sent out the bad news I was prepared...