Information School academics and the value of their personal digital archives

Introduction.This paper explores the value that academics in an information school assign to their digital files and how this relates to their personal information management and personal digital archiving practices. Method. An interpretivist qualitative approach was adopted with data from in-depth interviews and participant-led tours of their digital storage space. Analysis. The approach taken was thematic analysis. Results. Participants placed little value on their digital material beyond the value of its immediate use. They did not attach worth to their digital files for reuse by others, for sentiment, to project their identity or for the study of the development of the discipline or the study of the creative process. This was reflected in storage and file-naming practices, and the lack of curatorial activity. Conclusions. This paper is one of the first to investigate academics' personal information management and personal digital archiving practices, especially to focus on the value of digital possessions. The paper begins to uncover the importance of wider contextual factors in shaping such practices. Institutions need to do more to encourage academics to recognise the diverse types of value in the digital material they create.

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Modeling the process of personal digital archiving through ubiquitous and desktop devices: A systematic review

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science ◽

10.1177/0961000621996410 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096100062199641

Author(s):

Irfan Ali ◽

Nosheen Fatima Warraich

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Information Management ◽

Mobile Phones ◽

Process Model ◽

Personal Information ◽

Cloud Services ◽

Task Completion ◽

Personal Information Management ◽

Digital Archiving ◽

Ubiquitous Environment

The purpose of this study is to explore Personal Digital Archiving, and its practices, reasons, and challenges in desktop and in ubiquitous environment such as desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones or smartphones, tablets, and cloud services. Moreover, it is also aimed to develop a model of Personal Digital Archiving process for desktop and ubiquitous devices. This study used Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines for searching and devising, and inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Search was conducted from selected repositories, databases, and core journals, potentially containing studies related with Personal Digital Archiving. Consequently, 21 studies were included through identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion of studies process. It was found that people used multiple devices such as mobile phones or smartphones along with other devices. It was established that people had also used cloud services with different devices including computers and smartphones or tablets for Personal Digital Archiving. Five major categories of individuals’ Personal Digital Archiving practices, that is, backup, replication or duplication, reorganizing and updating, cleaning or removing, and migration of information were found. Moreover, emotional motives, technological causes, alternative access, easy retrieval, and task completion were the reasons to adopt Personal Digital Archiving. On the basis of findings of selected studies, researchers developed a four steps model of Personal Digital Archiving process, consisting of initiation, identification, action, and evaluation constructs. Personal Digital Archiving challenges were also identified such as the individuals had to face through the use of desktop and ubiquitous devices including technical, fragmented and overloaded information, lack of training and expertise, and psychological and miscellaneous challenges. Personal Digital Archiving process model is based on the extracted data from studies published worldwide, and it is useful for both desktop and ubiquitous devices with reference to Personal Information Management context. The findings of the study will be helpful for software designers and android application developers to design and develop users’ centered Personal Information Management software.

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The Relation between Personal Digital Archiving and Personal Information Management

2018 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Economic Management and Social Science (IEMSS 2018) ◽

10.23977/iemss.2018.91434 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Information Management ◽

Personal Information ◽

Personal Information Management ◽

Digital Archiving

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Everyday data cultures and USB portable flash drives

International Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/13678779211047917 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136787792110479

Author(s):

Rowan Wilken ◽

Jenny Kennedy

Keyword(s):

Information Management ◽

Cloud Storage ◽

Management Practices ◽

Personal Information ◽

Portable Devices ◽

Personal Information Management ◽

Hard Drives ◽

And Storage ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Considerable Complexity

In this article, we present a deeper understanding of everyday data cultures in regards to personal information management practices. We draw on a study involving 14 in-depth interviews with users of portable hard drives and USB portable flash drives in Melbourne, Australia, to examine participants’ reflections on their management of personal information on USB portable devices. In examining participant use of these devices, we consider how they kept (stored) and organized (arranged) information on these devices. We also examined device and data sharing. We conclude by thinking about their increased use within cross-tool information management, including the nexus of portable hard drive/USB use and cloud storage. The argument of this article is that portable hard drives and USBs, due to their miniaturization, ease of portability, affordability and storage capacity, add considerable complexity to established understandings of personal information management practices.

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