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How
do you archive past projects so that files are accessible when
needed? Aside from the legal requirements of record keeping,
most architects and facilities managers believe that the project
documents should last at least as long as the building they helped
create. Several things to consider when developing an archival
records strategy include:
- Media: Will
there be equipment capable of reading your selected media fifty
years from now? Remember Syquest 44, reel-to-reel tapes or
5 ¼” floppy disks? Remember punch cards? And even
if you’ve got the hardware to read it, will your media
preserve your precious digital information for that long? Most
people these days are putting their faith in CD-ROM and other
optical media. They’ve been around for 20 years and each
new iteration in optical drives has typically included backward
compatibility with earlier versions. That means your DVD or
CD_RW drive can still read your old CDs. And while magnetic
media are considered to have a life of only 5-7 years, optical
media last much longer, perhaps as long as 50 years or more.
- File
types: If
you save your documents in their native format, will you always
have software capable of reading the files? It’s smart
to save your documents in several ways: in their native format,
in a compatible interchange format (such as DWG) and in a read-only
format like Adobe PDF, which will at least allow you to print
them at high resolution and recover at least some of their
value. Many architects, engineers and builders are saving “record” copies
of their drawings as secure PDF files, which can be digitally
signed with all the legal weight of wet-signed and stamped
paper drawings.
- Physical
storage: Consider
moving your archival CD-ROMs offsite, perhaps to a bank vault,
or better yet, make several copies and keep them in different
locations. Be sure to keep records of what’s on each
disk and where it is stored. Most firms archive not just the
drawings, but all of their project files, including correspondence,
schedules, meeting notes, etc., preserving firm-standard project
file systems as they are archived. You may be able to store
your archives on a shared Internet server, keeping them accessible
via FTP while maintaining the security of off-site storage.
The
key here is redundancy: don’t put all your eggs in one
basket. And review your archival strategy annually. If you can
anticipate that your storage technology may become obsolete in
the near future, you still have time to transfer files to something
with more staying power.
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