I don’t think anyone could disagree that the highlight of last year’s World Digital Preservation Day was the State Library of Queensland’s outstanding parody song “All the Corrupt Files”. There was singing! There was dancing! There were costumes! There was high production value! There was even an awards ceremony!
And this year they’ve knocked it out of the park again as Preservana and “Smells Like Digital Preservation”. The University of Melbourne has also joined the party with the wonderful piece of story telling that is “Bits and Bytes”, which introduces two new characters that are quickly gaining a legion of fans. And to keep the music themed fun going there’s also a digital preservation themed playlist by the folks at the Netherland’s Institute for Sound and Vision.
Here at the DPC we couldn’t be left out of the fun, but what could we do? What classic song could we reinterpret? And how could we make it just that wee bit Scottish? Suddenly the answer was clear, there really was only one choice….
So please enjoy our entry into the digital preservation song contest (sadly due to time it’s minus the creative production of those above!)
I’m Gonna Preserve (500 Files)
(If you really want to add this to your playlists at home, there’s an MP3 version too! )
I’m Gonna Preserve (500 Files) – The Lyrics
When the data, comes in for the work we do, I'll pass almost every checksum on to you
When I ingest, well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the one who migrates files for you
When I back-up, well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the one who backs up tapes for you
And when I grow old, then I know am gonna access, gonna access all those files again for you
But I’d preserve 500 files, and I’d preserve 500 more,
Just to be the one who preserved a thousand files with access to them all
When I’m planning, well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the one who picks standards for you
When I’m writing, well I know I’m gonna write, I’m gonna write a DP policy for you
When I note costs, well I know I’m gonna use, I’m gonna use cost modelling for you
And when I check risks, well I know I’m gonna check, I’m gonna check all the high-risk files for you
But I’d preserve 500 files, and I’d preserve 500 more,
Just to be the one who preserved a thousand files with access to them all
1 1 0 1, 1 1 0 1, 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0
1 1 0 1, 1 1 0 1, 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0
When there’s software, well I know I’m gonna put, I’m gonna put into escrow for you,
When I’m coding, well I know I’m gonna write, I’m gonna write an emulator for your games,
When I web crawl, well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the one who creates WARC files for you,
And when I need help, well I know I’m gonna ask, I’m gonna ask the DPC for advice,
Yes, I’m gonna ask the DPC for advice….
But I’d preserve 500 files, and I’d preserve 500 more,
Just to be the one who preserved a thousand files with access to them all….
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