A condensed version of this case note also appears in the Technology Watch Report Personal Digital Archiving by Gabriela Redwine.

Paul Wilson’s case note summarizes his attempts to find a suitable preservation planning process and associated documentation to apply to his personal digital collections. Since he could find no preservation planning process appropriate to individuals, he obtained a slide set detailing a simple preservation workflow from the Digital Preservation Coalition, and used that as a foundation on which to establish an approach to the work. This general approach and accompanying documentation was tested and refined on two of his personal digital collections (one of 800 mementos and the other of 17,000 photos). Template documents were then derived from the results.

This case note describes the solutions best suited to Wilson's collections and resources, but the processes he has developed have a wide applicability to any personal or small collections. In the fuller article (which can be downloaded as a PDF below), Wilson narrates his experiences to provide insights into the practical outcomes of using published guidelines and tools for preservation planning. Individuals and small organisations will be able to replicate those actions described here that are relevant to their own situations. They will also be able to compare their own collections and circumstances with those in this case study in order to assess common conditions and challenges. All of the documents, as well as blank templates, are available below.

• Download the Full Text of Case Note
• Download the slides from Paul Wilson's Webinar: 'Preservation Planning for Personal Digital Archives' (pdf)
• Read more to access the Toolkit

Toolset: Preservation Planning for Personal Digital Collections

These documents comprise a Toolset derived from Paul Wilson's trials to discover a preservation planning workflow applicable to his personal collections. 

Download the Full Text PDF

Preservation Planning for Personal Digital Collections by Paul Wilson

Related Resources

DPC 12-Step Questionnaire template

Documents from the First Trial - PERS Collection

The following documents (suitably anonymised) were produced in the course of the first trial:

• Scoping Document
• Preservation Project Plan Description
• Preservation Project Plan Chart
• Preservation Maintenance Plan

Documents from the Second Trial - PHOTOS Collection

The following documents (suitably anonymised) were produced in the course of the second trial:

• Scoping Document
• Preservation Project Plan Description
• Preservation Project Plan Chart
• Preservation Maintenance Plan

Preservation Planning Documentation Templates

The templates below can be used as the basis of your preservation planning documentation. They include removable guidance on how to complete them. 

• Scoping Document template
•   Scoping Document - updated from implementation of preservation plan
• Preservation Project Plan Description template
•   Preservation Project Plan Description - updated from implementation of preservation plan
• Preservation Project Plan Chart template
•   Preservation Project Plan Chart - updated from implementation of preservation plan
• Preservation Maintenance Plan template
•   Preservation Maintenance Plan - updated from implementation of preservation plan