Digital Memorial Backup and Restore Plan | Evidence Checklist

Direct answer and scope

The practical starting point is a controlled source-location inventory. Identify where important photographs and memorial web content are held, such as a camera, computer, removable medium, or web location. Keep that inventory private and limited to locations and preservation questions; do not upload photographs, connect accounts, or provide file paths to a guide or checklist. The inventory is a planning record, not a discovery scan, and it should not be treated as an assurance that every relevant item has been found.

For each portrait handoff, ask which source file and version will be used, whether an approved export exists, and how the versions will be distinguished. The preservation record can include questions about descriptive filenames, tags, folder organization, and a short explanation of that organization. Official guidance permits selecting the highest-quality version when multiple versions exist, but the selection itself must be made and verified by the people responsible for the material; this guide does not grade image quality, authenticity, resolution, ownership, or print suitability.

For hosted content, ask whether an independently readable export exists, what it contains, and which metadata accompanies it. A browser view or live memorial is not treated as the same evidence state as an exported set of files. The export question also remains separate from whether interactive behavior, links, redirects, accounts, domains, or other hosted functions can later be reproduced.

This guide covers planning questions and evidence distinctions. It does not inspect files, devices, accounts, hosted memorials, or storage locations, and it does not perform a backup or restore.

How to use the official evidence

The Library of Congress personal digital-archiving material supplies separate guidance for photographs, websites, and digital records. Use the photography guidance for locating important images, distinguishing versions, organizing descriptions, keeping copies on separate media and in different locations, and checking readability. Use the website guidance for identifying important hosted material, exporting selected information, retaining descriptive metadata, organizing exported files, and checking whether saved files remain readable. Use the records guidance for version decisions, folder organization, and documentation.

The National Archives describes a 3-2-1 approach as three copies on two different media with one copy off-site. In a planning record, list each proposed copy, its medium category, and its location category separately. Leave any category unresolved when the evidence is not available. The approach is a reference for organizing questions, not a finding that a particular backup exists or can be restored.

Official guidance also supports a consistent naming approach using alphanumeric characters without spaces or punctuation, with hyphens or underscores as separators. This can be considered for a private archive, while preserving the distinction between an archive naming approach and any filename supplied by an artist or other source. Basic metadata can describe who, what, where, and when, but decisions about nonpublic information and what should not appear in a memorial should remain with the responsible people.

The federal personal-digital-archiving hub is a method source covering formats, descriptions, scanning, storage media, photographs, records, and websites. It does not establish any vendor, platform, QR system, portrait workflow, file decision, or memorial service. Vendor-specific values remain unknown unless a separate primary-evidence manifest is available.

Decision framework

Start with the preservation asset: identify whether the record concerns a portrait source, an approved export, descriptive metadata, a folder manifest, hosted content, or a combination of these. Then record the version status without inventing a required set of files. Useful questions include whether a source, master, approved, display, or export version is being discussed and whether the person responsible for the handoff has documented that distinction.

Next, separate copy states. Ask whether a copy is held by the commissioning party, whether another copy is outside the commissioned service, and whether the copies are on separate media and in different locations. Do not count a copy merely because it is mentioned, synchronized, displayed online, or listed in a contract. Evidence about possession, location, and readability should be recorded as separate items.

For a hosted memorial, record the live-content question separately from the export question. Ask whether selected material can be exported in an independently readable form and what metadata accompanies that export. Keep questions about the QR image, its destination, domain or account control, redirects, a human-readable fallback, export, independent copies, periodic tests, and continuity handoff separate as well. A QR image by itself does not resolve those other states.

Set a review point for readability. The Library of Congress guidance says to check photo files at least annually and to create new media copies periodically or when needed to avoid data loss. The same guidance for personal websites and records calls for periodic checks that saved files remain readable. These instructions describe an active review process; they do not establish one universal replacement schedule for every medium or service.

Limits and what to verify next

Before relying on a portrait or memorial record, verify privately which source file and version are intended for preservation, what approved exports exist, and how the folder structure and metadata will be documented. Do not provide the files, names, relationships, dates, locations, descriptions, tags, filenames, or account details to this guide. The relevant people should decide which information accompanies a preservation copy and which information should not be displayed.

Ask the responsible service or contract holder whether an export is offered, what it contains, whether metadata accompanies it, and how the exported material can be read outside the hosted environment. No vendor or platform capability is established by the official method sources supplied here. A browser-saved page should not be treated as proof that hosted content, functionality, or metadata has been retained.

Verify the location and medium category for each intended copy, including the copy outside the commissioned service and the off-site category in a 3-2-1 plan. Then document periodic readability checks and any new media copies made when needed. Do not treat synchronization, a live page, a QR image, an untested file, or an unresolved contract term as evidence of another state.

This guide does not determine rights, privacy, succession, account-control, contract-effect, or remedy questions.

Questions people ask

The questions below use the same evidence distinctions as the planning framework: source and version status, copy location, export content, readability, and the boundary between a guide and an inspection or storage service.

Evidence behind this page

Each point below is restricted to what the cited primary source supports. Administrative listing status is not a quality endorsement.