Serena Coates is Coordinator of Digital Preservation (Preservation Services) and Rachel Merrick is Metadata Specialist at State Library of Queensland
With more conferences being held south of the equator (iPres in 2014, IDCC in 2019) for the first time, and local communities of practice growing in numbers (Australasia Preserves, and the National and State Libraries of Australia DP CoP), the digital preservation community is Australasia is growing stronger by the minute. So why not put this growing enthusiasm to music?
A recent thread on the Australasia Preserves web forum posed the question – “Does AusPreserves need a theme song?”. A couple of DP themed songs already exist, but the creative juices got flowing, and ideas were thrown in to the mix – “If I Could Turn Back Time” (Cher), and “Born this Way” (Lady Gaga) were put up as two possible candidates.
On behalf of the NSLA community of practice, we took it one step further, and issued a song challenge – to create a parody of an existing song, or write an original song with the theme of digital preservation. More ideas flowed - “Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears), and “[Files] Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor).
At State Library of Queensland, we settled on a parody of “All the Single Ladies” by Beyonce (“if you liked it then you should have put a checksum on it”!). Following the digital preservation principle of “don’t worry if it’s not perfect – doing something is better than doing nothing”, in less than 48 hours we wrote some lyrics, choreographed a dance, bought black leotards and convinced our visual media technician to record it all for us. The result has been described by one colleague as “brave”! We were going more for entertaining/amusing/educational!
Focus on the lyrics rather than the singing/dancing – we think Beyonce’s job is safe! We hope you find it as fun to watch as we did to make. Now we hope that others take up the challenge of both creating parody songs, and preserving digital files, as we can’t wait to see what they come up with!
Check out the video here:
All the Corrupt Files (Single Ladies [Put a Ring on it] parody) from State Library of Queensland on Vimeo.
or if you don’t have time, the lyrics are below for your entertainment!
All the corrupt files
All the pixelation
All the file formats
All the obsolescence
All the metadata
All the preservation
All the long term access
Now make your back-ups!
Up in the lab, just looked up
The only copy of this thing
A bit decided to flip, and now you’re gonna trip
‘Cause no-one else can access it
Didn’t check JHOVE, didn’t check DROID
Didn’t make any derivatives
Forensic toolkit, you need for this
You didn’t check fixity
'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Check PRONOM for my SIPs, PREMIS for my DIPs
And don’t forget the A-I-Ps
If they act up, files get corrupt
OAIS notifies me
Got lossless compression, did I mention?
No worries on format migration
Born digital or turned, you won't get burned
You got a preservation policy
'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
Don’t assume your content will not corrupt
It's not that kind of world
Good files are what we deserve, what we preserve
Make a plan that saves them then takes them
And delivers them to a user base, to the internet and beyond
Pull them into your arms
Commit to save the ones you want
If you don’t, you’ll be forlorn
And long term access will be gone
All the corrupt files
All the pixelation
All the file formats
All the obsolescence
All the metadata
All the preservation
All the long term access
Now make your back-ups
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
One, oh, one
Oh, one, one, oh, oh, one
Oh, one, one
'Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
Don’t be mad once you see that you lost it
If you liked it, then you should have put a checksum on it
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