Backup vs. Archiving vs. Legacy
/It happens every year
Summer is almost over, and as we head back to work and school, we are all entering other types of seasons. It depends upon your region, but out here in Los Angeles we are entering peak wildfire season. In the Gulf states, hurricane season is underway, and soon heavy rains and storms will bring flooding to many parts of the country. Honestly, it seems like these weather-related disaster seasons are becoming year-round. The important thing to remember is that our homes, belongings, photos, family history, and memories can be put at risk.
When it comes to safeguarding our digital assets, there are familiar terms such as backing up and archiving. However, more and more, we are hearing the word legacy being used. I thought it would be helpful to clarify the meanings of these words so you can better navigate the steps you need to take to ensure the safety and preservation of your digital history.
Backing up
Let’s start with backing up. A backup system is something you set up to safeguard the digital assets you have today, as opposed to archiving, which are the steps you take to preserve and pass things on for the future.
One of the first things I ask new clients is whether they have a backup system in place—either local backup, off-site backup, or ideally both. There is no greater priority before I work with someone than making sure at least some of those backup options are in place.
The wildfires that devastated Los Angeles last January destroyed many people’s homes and belongings. I heard from some victims that they had the best intentions of backing up their digital files—photos, videos, important documents—but had never gotten around to it. Such heartbreak!
You may be powerless over what happens to your physical items in a disaster, but you can absolutely ensure the protection of your digital files, which more and more include some of the most valuable documents and records in our lives. And if you’ve scanned and digitized your photos, documents, letters, and other important items, you’ve taken steps to begin safeguarding some of your most valuable possessions.
Best backup practices suggest the 3-2-1 method of backup. That means keeping three copies of your files, on two different types of storage, with one copy off-site.
If you asked me which of the two is more essential—local or off-site—I would say off-site. If your house burns or floods and everything is destroyed, all the local backup in the world would be useless. But local backup is still valuable since it makes it more accessible to retrieve your files if needed, and there is always the risk of online hacking. I’ve yet to hear of a major breach involving any the backup platforms, but in this world, anything is possible—and probable.
There are many inexpensive and simple ways to set up local backup. Macs have the Time Machine utility, and Windows also has a built-in utility called File History. Both can be easily set up using an external drive as a backup drive.
For off-site backup, several companies provide excellent services. I personally use Backblaze, but there’s also Carbonite and pCloud. You open an account, usually pay for a year in advance, and then choose any external hard drives you want backed up in addition to your computer’s hard drive. Once the initial backup is complete, it will either continuously back up your new or modified files or do so at whatever intervals you choose. Most services also keep a file history for around 30 days, in case you need to retrieve an earlier version.
Most of these can be set up on your own, but your friendly neighborhood Photo Manager can help you configure whatever system you need for all your computers and devices.
Archiving
Whereas a backup system can be set up fairly quickly, archiving is a longer project and process requiring more time and effort. That said, it may be one of the most important things you do, since you are essentially preserving your family’s history and legacy (more on that word in a moment).
In many families, there’s a designated family historian. If that happens to be you, you may feel the pressure and responsibility of this major undertaking. It can feel daunting, prompting questions like: What do I want to preserve? How do I keep things safe and able to be passed on? Where do I even begin?
Last year, I created an in-depth course on legacy preservation and archiving, which required that I do a lot of research and spend a good deal of time working on my own family history and archive. It was something I had procrastinated on for far too long, and creating the course seemed like as good a reason as any to finally get started.
Aside from all that I learned and the numerous resources I discovered, the most unexpected aspect was a shift in my perception of the whole process. I went into it expecting it to be overwhelming and a chore, but the more I immersed myself in it, the more it became an exciting and revealing exploration of my family’s life that I looked forward to getting back to every chance I could.
I learned so many things about my family—the details of the lives they led and the incredible challenges and hardships they endured and had to overcome. I particularly saw my grandparents in a whole new light, and to say I gained a tremendous amount of respect for them would be an understatement.
I began to feel a great sense of responsibility to keep the memory of their lives and their sacrifices available and accessible for other family members, and in some cases to historical archives that their stories related to. It turned out my grandparents led pretty interesting lives, and by my putting some of their stories and pictures out into the world, I began receiving requests to share them with historical organizations and even for publication. By preserving their stories and visual history, I could see that I was contributing to our greater collective history as well as its preservation.
Digital archiving is the biggest challenge. Archiving analog materials has at least a 100-year benchmark, and most archival products easily meet that standard. But no hard drive lasts anywhere near that long.
The majority of digital archiving today happens at institutional or organizational levels, with resources far beyond what we as individuals can manage. So what are our options?
In creating my course, I developed several suggestions for individuals to begin archiving and preserving their digital assets. One approach does involve hard drives. Since a typical hard drive lasts 5–10 years, files must be migrated to newer drives and technologies as they emerge. A legacy contact—preferably a family member—should also help maintain this succession and adapt as technology progresses. A finding aid, essentially a list of the drive’s contents, must accompany the archive. It’s not perfect, but it’s something we can do—and hopefully, as technology advances, more durable solutions will emerge.
Another option is digital archiving platforms specifically built for long-term preservation. These sites typically charge a one-time fee (with optional additional storage) rather than a subscription, allowing archives to outlive the original account holder. They also have mechanisms for designated legacy contacts to carry out whatever wishes the original account holder instructs. The two main options are permanent.org, a nonprofit, and forever.com. On these platforms, you can create personal historical archives with galleries, stories, and timelines for a person, family, or organization.
I have an account with permanent.org and have created archival pages for several family members as well as for some of the professional photography projects I have done during my career. These are public galleries (though you can make them private if you wish), accessible to anyone. My one-time fee goes into an endowment fund that, if successful, ensures long-term survival and availability. This is the legacy I hope to leave.
Legacy
This brings us to a discussion of the word legacy.
Legacy is a word I’m seeing more and more in photo and family-history-related products and services, and I think it’s helpful to put it in context. So far, we’ve talked about backing up, which protects your current assets, and archiving, which safeguards them for future access.
My concern with the word legacy is that it’s sometimes used to imply that anything associated with it will automatically preserve and archive your history. That’s not always the case. Don’t get me wrong—many remarkable companies offer creative products and services—but it’s important to distinguish between legacy and archiving, particularly so when considering a purchase of some of these products and services.
The definition of legacy is: something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time, or something that is passed on.
There’s a difference between a product that can be passed on and the actual process of passing it on—archiving.
We’re mostly talking about digital products and services that make storytelling easier, more accessible, and more engaging. They often streamline the process of recording stories, dates, and genealogical information.
The real question is: how do you preserve it? If the product is self-contained—something you can download and doesn’t rely on proprietary software or a specific website—then it can truly be passed on. But if the company goes out of business and the product, service, or your records become inaccessible or incompatible, then it’s not a viable archival product or service. That is the question you want to ask.
I’m also wary of subscription models. If I pass something on to my children or grandchildren, am I also passing on the responsibility of paying for the subscription? That won’t work unless there’s a mechanism that simplifies succession without creating an ongoing financial burden.
This is where the permanent.org and forever.com models stand apart—they ask for a one-time fee, avoiding future costs for your descendants.
Better solutions are coming
Digital archiving is in its very early stages. We are still sorting things out, and with the best intentions, many companies are creating a variety of legacy products and services. It is up to us however, to distinguish what truly works for the long-term preservation of our legacies.
As technology progresses, more true archiving solutions will hopefully become available, making choices clearer and more reliable.
It is important however, to get started as soon as you can, do not wait. The steps you take to begin accumulating and organizing what you want archived is a process that can take some time, so do what you can now and be ready for when those better solutions become an option.
The work we can begin to do today, will give us peace of mind that our legacies—our family history and stories—will be preserved across generations for others to enjoy and, hopefully, learn from.
