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• Where are the files currently stored?  

• • On If stored on pieces of physical media, e.g.such as hard drives, CDs, or floppy disks? If stored on media, as about the number and type of media , what types of media and how many? (e.g. an album of CDs, 2 hard drives, etc.) 

• • In If stored in a cloud storage account, which type of account (e.g. Google Drive, Box, OneDrive?  etc.)? Can you share a link or otherwise provide access for our digital archivist to download the files directly?
    

• • If anything is stored on a device (e.g., such as a laptop, tablet, or phone), ask that they , are you able to copy the files to a hard drive (this is preferred) or a cloud storage account. ?

• Do you know the approximate dates when the digital files were created?  

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• Do you know of any unusual formats in the files?   
  

• • If so, can you provide the names of the software or devices that created the files?  

• For hybrid collections that also contain paper/analog materials: do all or part of the digital materials duplicate the paper materials?  
  

Transferring Digital Files to the Library

Sometimes donors will ask how they should transfer their digital materials to the library. The answer depends on where the files are currently located and what kinds of technology the donor is comfortable with. You can always contact the Digital Archivist, Emmeline Evans Kaser, to talk with a donor directly and coordinate the transfer. 

We always want to receive the original version of a file whenever possible. We do not want donors to reformat files or copy files off of original media (e.g. CDs, floppy disks, etc.), even if they think it would be helpful for us. Receiving original files, even if they are on older media or in older file formats, allows us to preserve important metadata about those materials. 

Preferred transfer methods

As a rule of thumb, we strongly discourage donors from emailing archival materials. This method is never preferred. Copying files to physical media (like a USB hard drive) is generally preferred, except for in some situations as listed below:

• If the files are on the donor's computer, they should copy them to a USB hard drive and mail or deliver the drive to RMC. We can ship them a hard drive for this if needed.
• If the files are already saved in a cloud storage account (Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.), the donor should share access to the relevant folders with Emmeline Evans Kaser and make sure she has permission to download the materials. They should not delete the files from cloud storage until they've received confirmation that they've been downloaded and saved in RMC.
  
• If the files are already on a piece of storage media, like a hard drive, CDs, or floppy disks, it is preferred that they mail or deliver the original media directly to RMC.

As mentioned above, please do not hesitate to reach out to Emmeline to advise on specific transfers. 

Using the Airtable Pre-Accession Form 

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If you have any questions about the digital-related fields on the pre-accession form or would like assistance filling it out, please reach out to the Digital Archivist, Emmeline Evans Kaser, via email or Slack.