This webpage used to contain a guided form that asked several questions about digital content storage and to create a downloadable spreadsheet inventory. This form was developed in 2015 as part of the original project. Unfortunately, when this website migrated to a new host in 2022, the license for the form plugin was unable to be transferred.
Below, you’ll find a list of questions that the tool asked. After collecting general information on the person doing the work, the repeated the bucket questions as often as was needed. A blank digital content inventory spreadsheet is also available.
Gaining intellectual control over your content is the first step towards digital preservation. In this tool, we call any device or service that holds your digital content a bucket. A bucket might be a flash drive, someone’s computer, a Dropbox account — anything or anywhere you store your digital content.
General Information
- First Name
- Last Name
Bucket Information (repeat for each bucket)
- Bucket Name
- When was this bucket created or started?
- Is this bucket a physical device or online service?
- physical device
- online service
- Who has administrative authority for this bucket? (Include name, email address and phone number)
- Who has access to this bucket? (List the people that have access to this bucket. Enter their name, then the level of access they have.)
- Content
- What types of content are included in this bucket? (Check all that apply)
- Audio
- Video
- Images
- Documents
- Is this bucket searchable?
- Yes
- No
- If so, how do you search it?
- Is the content in the bucket described anywhere, such as a catalog?
- Yes
- No
- If so, where?
- What is the maximum capacity for this bucket? (Please enter your number in GB)
- What amount of capacity of this bucket is used? (Please enter your number in GB)
- Who made these measurements and when?
- What types of content are included in this bucket? (Check all that apply)
- Security
- How often is the bucket backed up?
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Semi-Annually
- Never
- Who is responsible for the backup?
- Do you make copies of your backups?
- Yes
- No
- What medium are the backups stored on?
- LTO Tape
- External Hard Drive
- Internal Hard Drive
- Cloud
- Other
- Do you store those backups in different geographic locations?
- Yes
- No
- If so, how far apart are those locations? (Enter in miles.)
- Are you able to quickly retrieve these backups in case of an emergency?
- Yes
- No
- Do you monitor these files for changes (fixity)?
- Yes
- No
- Do you ever migrate files to a new format?
- Yes
- No
- How often is the bucket backed up?
- Financial
- What is the funding source for this bucket?
- Who is the responsible agent for its funding?
- What is the annualized cost? (Enter in dollars)
- If applicable, what are the annual membership costs? (Enter in dollars)