DP Spotlight November - Myths, Risks and Realities of Floppy Disk Preservation

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With Tyler Thorsted, Leontien Talboom, Ross Spencer and Julianna Barrera-Gomez.

The authors of the award-winning iPRES 2026 paper "Myths, Risks and Realities of Floppy Disk Preservation" have kindly agreed to re-run their excellent presentation for the November DP Spotlight event!

Floppy disks remain vital for accessing early digital collections, yet online forums and blogs circulate many untested myths around these carriers. This paper examines common claims about reading disks; handling, cleaning, storage and media fragility; evaluating them in the context of contemporary workflows. Drawing on practical experience, targeted testing, and collaboration with conservation experts, we distinguish between theoretical risks and real-world workflows. By situating online advice within our own preservation practice, we provided a grounded perspective that helps preservation practitioners navigate legacy media.

This paper won the Angela Dappert Memorial Award for Digital Preservation Research & Practice at iPRES 2026.

Who can use DP Spotlight?

DP Spotlight is available to everyone in the digital preservation community, DPC Members and non-members alike, provided all participants are respectful and supportive of one another and adhere to the DPC's Inclusion and Diversity Policy.

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Recordings 

All presentations will be recorded and made available to DPC Members and Supporters via this web page after the event (login to DPC website required).

Please note – DPC Members do not need to register in order to access the recordings after the event.

DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy

The DPC Community is guided by the values set out in our Strategic Plan and aims to be respectful, welcoming, inclusive and transparent. We encourage diversity in all its forms and are committed to being accessible to everyone who wishes to engage with the topic of digital preservation, whilst remaining technology and vendor neutral. We ask all those who are part of this community to be positive, accepting, and sensitive to the needs and feelings of others in alignment with our DPC Inclusion & Diversity Policy.