Housekeeping records for historians

Over the last few days I have been doing some large-scale housekeeping by copying myriad files from my documents, downloads, pictures, old CD-Roms and DVDs to external hard-drives and newly-purchased DVDs. Keeping track of a quarter of a century's records is a confusing business, especially since it is easy to forget where one has saved important and interesting files. But the whole process reminded me of the importance of keeping proper records, particularly of material likely to be of interest to future generations of historians. I think this applies to ephemeral as well as to more enduring sources. If I think of the major figures of my own time as an undergraduate and postgraduate, it is disappointing to find that so little survives of them lecturing or giving conference or seminar papers. Only fragments from television and radio broadcasts at best. Technological progress has, however, made it practicable to record such material for later scholars. It will be possible to see and hear figures like Richard Cust, Ann Hughes, Peter Lake, Nicholas Tyacke and many others for many years into the future. It should also be possible to track more ephemeral material to be found in blogs, on the sites of local history societies, on Youtube and so on. I am keen on both sorts of evidence being preserved and hope that many academic historians are making arrangements to ensure that their archives pass into safe hands for the future.