Author Archives: Isaiah Beard

About Isaiah Beard

Isaiah's role at Rutgers University Libraries is to establish standards and workflow practices for the digitization and encoding of a wide array of digital assets. His background in digital preservation begins with his avid interest in photography, and in the issues facing the field as it shifts from analog film formats into an increasingly digital landscape. He has researched and developed standards for the preservation of digital assets that have been adopted by a number of prominent agencies, including the Library of Congress, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and members of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA). An advocate of free and open source software and standards, he volunteers time to projects assisting aspiring artists, photographers, videographers and musicians in using these open technologies to their advantage. Isaiah's current active projects in addition to NJVid include the Rutgers Community Repository (RUcore); and advising developers of the Ubuntu Linux project in matters relating to media format compatibility.

The Day The Music Burned: A euology and indictment on our preservation failures

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Isaiah Beard

Yesterday, The New York Times published an article that recounts a day the music industry lost a great deal of its history, and yet very people knew or understood the impact. Deemed “the biggest disaster in the history of the … Continue reading →

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Remembering the 75th D-Day Anniversary

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Isaiah Beard

As we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of one of the most important events in world history, there is a concern that the true meaning of this day, and the significance it holds, may be lost on future generations. Fortunately, one … Continue reading →

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Sometimes, tech blogs get it all wrong

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Isaiah Beard

Tech blogs are great sometimes for showing people nice “hacks” (or really, just features) that people can use to get the most of the technology they use.  But, they don’t always get their facts correct. One glaring example is an … Continue reading →

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ALCTS Presentation: Preserving Your Digital Life

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Isaiah Beard

Preservationists like myself are heeding the call for help from he public in Personal Digital Archiving skills, and we’re starting to lend some of our expertise to the public. As part of this effort, myself and Krista White, Digital Humanities Librarian at Rutgers Libraries, gave a seminar both in-person and on the web that describes some of the terminology and technical issues that people need to be aware of when recording something for posterity. The session, titled “Preserving Your Digital Life” was sponsored by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Continue reading →

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Floppy disks and modern gadgets: Keeping a safe distance

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Isaiah Beard

If you ever come across an old floppy disk, be careful how you hold it and what you place against it. We’ve found a number of cases where putting a smartphone or tablet against a floppy disk will erase the data stored inside. Continue reading →

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