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Read this lesson. Pay attention to the lifecycle (process) of data sets. Answer the questions in this lesson. 

Data lifecycle management (DLM) is the policy or process that governs organizational data use. You learned that data management is an administrative function and DLM is a process to manage and preserve that data. Remember, good DLM includes all the phases of the data lifecycle. This is essential to data-driven decisions and actions taken by organizations daily.

Data Documentation (AKA Metadata)

Backing up data: storing during active phase

Ideally, keep three copies of your data:

  1. local/working copy
    e.g. on your workstation or in shared workspace
  2. remote copy
    e.g. on a managed backup system
  3. other copy in another remote location, or local/external
    e.g., external hard drive* (CDs and DVDs not built to last)


Test file recovery at setup and on a regular schedule

This is not for publishing or sharing (storage ≠ archiving) 



Additional considerations:

• What to keep?

Consider weeding obsolete data as you go

• Huge file size!


Images can often be very large files

• Image compression may be done by your image software automatically

• If not, you can compress your data.

• But always keep one uncompressed copy somewhere

• Use open source compression software

• Document the version of compression software used 


Additional considerations:

• My Research is top secret!

• Then you can use encryption

• Don't rely on 3rd party encryption alone

• Use something like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)

• Write the keys down on two pieces of paper

• Store each piece of paper securely in separate locations