There are seven entries in the 2021 BitList relating to the 'Portable Media' species. Click on each entry below to see the full description.
Case Studies and Examples
The June 2020 Dutch Digital Heritage Network (DDHN) report, Endangered digital heritage on portable media, an investigation into the national scale of the problem, identified that at about 40% of Dutch heritage institutions, the material on portable media is in danger of being lost.
Please note: This report is written in Dutch. With a little help from Google Translate you will be able to read it all.
For example, Born Digital Images Held Offline on Portable Storage Media Devices face material challenges to preservation when no refreshment plan or replication is in place. There are aggravating conditions particular to the different storage media devices holding these images (click on each of the entries listed above for a full description of aggravating conditions). The general recommended advice for all portable storage media types is to plan and implement refreshment and replication as early as possible, moving the data to new forms of storage every 5-10 years.
Please note: This example was previously a standalone entry in the 2019 BitList. However, the 2021 BitList Jury agreed that separating the risks relating to born digital images, which can apply to multiple kinds of portable storage media entries, could easily be overlooked in that respect. Rather than sit as a standalone entry in the list, it is presented here with an invitation for those in the digital preservation community to share their own case studies with these materials to add to this page.