C2C Care Course: Physical Media to Digital Storage

Do you have collections of obsolete and vulnerable removable media (optical media, hard drives, flash drives, etc.) but no backup of the files (the content) to safe and secure storage? This course, created for collections care staff at small and mid-sized institutions, takes you through the steps to identify, prioritize, describe, verify, and to safely transfer the files.

At the end of the course, participants will be equipped to plan and carry out their own migration plans of these critically endangered materials. The emphasis will be on moving image, sound and multimedia content, but the course will be applicable to the shared concerns about other materials such as photos and text. A sample Excel template will be provided listing the key information necessary for management of the carriers and files.

Course Schedule

Webinar 1: Digital Media Carriers and Their Properties
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2020 1:00pm-2:30pm ET
Presenter: Elena Colón-Marrero, Digital Archivist, Computer History Museum
In the first webinar, participants will learn to distinguish media carriers and their variations, as well as their relative risks, thus providing data for priority-setting. 

Webinar 2: Examining Media Carriers
Date: Thursday, October 22, 2020 1:00pm-2:30pm ET
Presenter: Lorena Ramirez López, Full Stack Developer / Media Preservation Specialist 
In the second webinar, participants will be introduced to the “what and why” of a basic migration workflow using write blockers and will learn various ways to gather information about the carrier’s key attributes. 

Webinar 3: Examining Media Files
Date:  Thursday, October 29, 2020 1:00pm-2:30pm ET
Presenter: Caroline Gil (she/her), Media Conservation Fellow, MoMA/Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the third webinar, participants will be presented with techniques for evaluating moving image and sound files in terms of their historical use, technical specifications, and sustainability, and will learn how to use computer-based tools to capture and organize available metadata. 

Webinar 4: Creating a Migration Plan
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2020 1:00pm-2:30pm ET
PresenterAnnie Schweikert, Digital Archivist, Stanford University Library Special Collections
In the fourth webinar, file transfer will be demonstrated after a discussion of the principles of digital storage and the practical preparatory steps necessary to begin migration. 

Webinar 5: Media Migration Case Studies
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020 1:00pm-2:30pm ET

Presenters: Caroline Gil (she/her), Media Conservation Fellow, MoMA/Metropolitan Museum of Art and Elena Colón-Marrero, Digital Archivist, Computer History Museum
The fifth webinar will present one or more case studies where a museum or archive has implemented a migration plan. 

*Please note: All webinars were done using Zoom. This is a self-study course originally offered in a live webinar format between October 13 and November 12, 2020.

Registration Fee: $89

Our Course Coordinators are Kristin MacDonough (she/her), Assistant Conservator of Media, Art Institute of Chicago and Mona Jimenez (she/her), Media Arts Consultant, Materia Media

Connecting to Collections Care courses are made possible in part by generous support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.