You probably have important documents, photographs, art, correspondence, and objects in your home. We could call this your personal—or family—archive. But how often do you think about preserving them for future generations? One way to preserve your material is to offer it to an archival institution, like the Halifax Municipal Archives. If you’re not yet ready to part with your archive, there are best practices for storing and organizing your material at home.
Whether you’re dealing with physical records or digital files, this guide provides practical tips to help you keep your records organized and protected for years to come.
The Basics
Physical Records
Material should be kept: DARK, DRY, CLEAN, COLD, and CONSISTENT.
- U/V light from sun or bulbs will damage most materials. Keep material covered.
- Water or even fluctuating humidity will damage material and permit mold growth. Keep material off the ground.
- Dirt and dust may damage material through abrasion and staining.
- Edibles, such as food or things like starch in documents can invite pests that will damage records.
- Heat may damage photos and audio-visual recordings; the colder the better but avoid fluctuating temperatures (e.g. unheated and/or damp garages, basements, or cellars).
- Avoid storing records in basements/kitchens/bathrooms/attics/garages if you can.
Digital Records
- Digital records can disappear in seconds, and without ongoing maintenance, their lifespan can be as short as five years. Regularly backup your files in multiple locations.
- Keeping everything leads to data clutter, making it difficult to find important files and increasing energy consumption, which harms the environment. Regularly declutter your digital space. Delete files you no longer need and organize your folders in a way that works for you.
- Ensure your devices are equipped with up-to-date antivirus software and protect your digital assets with strong passwords.
- Store removable media (external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, USBs) in a cool, dark and dry place. As with paper records, humidity or fluctuating temperatures can affect storage devices and lead to data loss.
- Digital files are susceptible to technological obsolescence—what’s cutting-edge today might be outdated tomorrow. Ensure you migrate your files from one format to another or one carrier to another as technology changes.
Handling & Storage
Physical Records
When to Use Gloves: Use nitrile or cotton gloves when handling photographs and slides, and always handle them by the edges. The oils from your skin can damage the emulsion on photographic prints and negatives. Gloves aren’t required when handling paper and can in fact damage brittle paper, but clean, dry hands are crucial. Handle all materials gently—imagine everything is hundreds of years old, and it will help it to last that long!
Folded or creased material is best preserved by being flattened and then stored in folders.
Flatten Records: Lay material flat and support materials when moving them. Give yourself plenty of tablespace to view and organize your photos and documents. Flatten pages when possible, as creases and folds can become weak points.
Folders: Consider investing in acid-free folders and envelopes. These help prevent your documents from yellowing and becoming brittle over time. Make sure the folders are larger than the records, leaving no vulnerable, dangling edges. It’s a good idea to label the folder contents in pencil so you can easily read the folder content without disturbing the records.
Sticky and magnetic photo albums, as well as any adhesives, can damage your photographs.
Plastic Sleeves: Photographs and torn pages can be placed in plastic sleeves that will allow you to see them while avoiding further damage. Plastic sleeves should be made of uncoated polyester (Mylar), polyethylene or polypropylene. Do not use PVC, and avoid sticky/magnetic albums and adhesives.
Avoid Staples: Metal clips and staples can rust and damage papers over time. Use paper clips made of stainless steel or brass. If your documents have old staples or paperclips, carefully examine the fastener and gently pry the edges away from the paper to remove. When in doubt, leave the old fastener in place. If you do separate a document, keep it together in a folder so the pages do not get lost or separated.
Boxes: Consider placing your records in archival-quality boxes (lidded and acid-free) that are sturdy and designed to shield contents from light, dust, and pests.
Isolate: Photograph negatives that have a strong vinegar or mothball smell should be segregated from other material. Those smells are caused by the degradation of the film.
Digital Records
Choose Storage Locations: Determine where you want to keep your records, taking into consideration storage size, cost, media lifespan, stability, and accessibility. All storage options have different strengths and weaknesses—there is no ideal solution. Here are some things to consider when choosing a storage option:
- External hard drives: Offer high storage capacity, making them suitable for storing large amounts of data. Only involve a one-time cost and don’t require internet access for file retrieval. However, they are physically vulnerable to damage, and will degrade over time.
- Cloud Storage: Allows you to store data on remote servers accessible via the internet, making them convenient for sharing files and accessing them from different devices. Many services also offer automatic backups. However, they rely on a stable internet connection, often require ongoing subscription fees, and raise privacy concerns. Keep in mind that by using cloud storage, you are relying on a third party to keep your files safe. Furthermore, some cloud services may compress your files, which can reduce quality. Cloud storage is best used as a supplementary backup rather than as your primary storage solution.
- Optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blue-ray discs): A cost-effective solution for archiving important data and can last for decades if stored properly but do degrade over time. However, they offer lower storage capacity than other options and require compatible hardware for access—does your computer still have a disc drive?
- USB Drives: Flash drives should only be considered for transfer between devices, not for long-term storage. Flash memory also degrades after repeated use.
Follow the 3-2-1 Rule: There’s no perfect solution to storing digital files. That’s why it is important to use more than one storage solution. Ideally, keep three copies of your data on two different types of storage media, with one copy stored in a different geographical location. This strategy helps protect against loss or accidental deletion.
File Formats: Save files in common, enduring formats like PDF and JPEG, which are more likely to remain accessible over time. Open formats (e.g., TXT and PDF for documents) are preferable to proprietary formats (e.g., DOCX) as they are more likely to be supported in the future. For photos and videos, use uncompressed formats to preserve quality.
Environment: As with physical records, digital media should be stored in a cool, dark, and dry place.
Identification & Selection
Physical Records
Locate Your Records: Start by identifying where all your physical documents are stored. This may include filing cabinets, boxes, or folders in various locations such as your home, office, or storage units. Take an inventory to know what you have and where everything is kept.
Assess: Create a clean, uncluttered space to evaluate your materials. This allows you to assess your collection and helps you decide what to keep and what to discard.
Check Condition: Examine the condition of your records. Look for signs of damage, such as fading, water stains, or mold. Ensure that everything is intact and legible. If any items are deteriorating, consider making copies or restoring them if possible.
Be Selective: It’s important to prioritize what to keep. Focus on essential items like legal documents, medical records, keepsake photos, and important correspondence. If you’re uncertain about certain materials, set them aside for later review. Once you’ve taken stock of everything, revisit these items to determine if they still hold value. If you have confidential material you want to destroy, check out HRM's Shred Instead Events on the Garbage, Recycling, and Green Cart Events webpage.
Digital Records
Locate Your Records: Determine where all your digital files are located. More recent records may be stored on your phone, computer or cloud services, but do you also have records on physical media like CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, USB flash drives—or even floppy disks? If you've inherited records stored on digital carriers you’re unsure how to access, resources like Cambridge University's guide to Identifying and Assessing Digital Carriers or the University of Utah’s Audiovisual Formats guide may be helpful.
Do you still have records on floppy disks and CDs?
Check Readability: Ensure your files are still readable. Storage media have limited lifespans and can fail unexpectedly. Certain file formats may become obsolete and no longer supported by current software. Ask yourself: how old is your storage media and when was the last time you checked its contents? Migrate files to more stable formats or media as needed.
Be Selective: Most of us produce an overwhelming number of digital records. Prioritize items that hold significant value, such as legal and financial documents, cherished photographs, and important correspondence. Ask yourself what you would most regret losing. Delete materials you no longer need.
Organization & Description
Physical records
Arrange: Sort your records into groupings. Categories might include financial records, family photos, legal documents, and correspondence. Try to stay consistent about how you’re categorizing materials, understanding that there’s always going to be overlap. A well-organized archive means you’ll be able to find what you need in the future, but make sure the material is organized in a way that will help you to find it in the future—the best organizational system is one that is easy to understand and use.
Label: Label your materials clearly, especially for photographs of people and places from the past. You may remember exactly where and when these photos were taken, and who is in them, but will future family members be able to puzzle it out? Use a pencil for labelling when possible to avoid any permanent accidents on original documents and photographs.
Metadata: Metadata, or data about data, is a way to preserve contextual information about your records. Are there stories to go with letters, objects, documents, videos, and photos? Write them down and keep these ‘histories’ with the material.
Digital Records
Folder Structure: Create a logical folder structure that makes sense for your needs. There’s no ideal way to organize your files. As with physical records, the best organization system is one that is easy for you to understand and use. Clear organization will help you find files quickly and reduces the risk of losing them.
This is one example of the type of folder structure you might use to organize your digital records.
Use Descriptive File Names: Use clear and consistent naming conventions. Keep names short (under 25 characters), avoid spaces and special characters (except for hyphens and underscores), and include dates (ideally formatted as YYYY-MM-DD) to make searching easier. Here are a few examples:
| Poor file names | Better file names |
|---|---|
| Poor file names | Better file names |
| My Photos [folder] | Christmas2023 [folder] |
| IMG_568127539.jpg | 2021-03-02_Birthday_JohnDoe.jpg |
| Draft2.docx | 2023-06-12_FiringLines_Draft_v2.docx |
| Receipt.pdf | 2022-09-30_TerryFoxFoundation_Donation_Receipt.pdf |
Metadata: Metadata, or data about data, is a way to preserve contextual information about your records. It provides a snapshot of what’s inside a file without needing to open it. While some operating systems automatically generate basic metadata (like file size and creation date), consider adding more detailed information to enhance long-term accessibility.
Preservation
Physical records
Monitor the Environment: Store your records in a stable, cool, and dry environment. Avoid basements, attics, or garages where conditions can fluctuate. Keep your materials off the ground and away from direct sunlight. Keeping the storage area clean will prevent dust build-up and also helps deter pests. Periodically check your records to ensure they remain in stable condition.
Digitization: Do you have the ability to digitize any material? This is one great way of preserving your records and sharing them without risking damage to the original. While photographs may remain stable over time, the life span of other media, including audio-visual materials, varies. Digitization ensures you will be able to access it even if the original material degrades or the technology becomes obsolete.
Digital Records
Check Storage and Files: Inspect your storage devices and files annually to ensure they remain accessible and in good condition.
Transfer and Migrate: Technology evolves rapidly. Replace your storage media every 5-7 years and convert your file formats as needed to ensure your data remains accessible long-term.
Review: As you add new files to your personal archive, reorganize your folders and delete old or duplicate files. Keeping your digital space orderly will make finding and accessing your records much easier.
Donating Records
The Halifax Municipal Archives invites donations of records that should be preserved and made accessible to the public, including documents, photographs, maps, plans, books, sound recordings, and film created by individuals, families, businesses or community organizations active within the municipality. See more about the donation process on our website.
The Municipal Archives values the inclusion of community records as an important complement to our government records, particularly as we endeavour to better represent Halifax’s diverse community and our histories. However, the Archives is also aware that different practices, such as traditional oral histories, as well as Halifax’s colonial history, may mean that donating to the Municipal Archives is not possible or preferred. The Municipality encourages organizations, businesses and families to care for their own historical records. Advice is available through our Guide to Archiving for Community Organizations, as well as through the Council of Nova Scotia Archives.