Some electronic files may not lend themselves to the management and access strategies outlined above. In these cases, other strategies may be desirable or necessary to provide staff and research access to the files.
For difficult-to-access files, files prone to corruption, and relational files, it might be preferable to print a copy of the file, rather than rely on the electronic copy, for reference and research use. These copies would go into the archival boxes just as Preservation Photocopies do, and would be clearly marked as printouts from electronic files.
For relational files, such as databases and hyperlinked documents, it may be better to recreate a mini-environment with the original software. For example, a suite of web pages could be copied to a folder that also contains a simple version of an HTML browser. Or a database file could be coupled with a viewing version of the database program.
For graphic files, Quick View Plus and other file viewers can open and display most types of images formats. Dynamic image data (e.g., motion picture files), however, will need to be viewed on software that can properly sequence them.
For batch files that we might describe at a finer level (e.g. Eudora e-mail folders containing e-mail from numerous correspondents, accessible in the original Eudora software), the access methods could take two forms: Arrange the file at the end of the Correspondence series as a general correspondence file (e.g. “Work Letters 1997”) and include important names in a note. Use the original software, if available, to access the individual components, print them out, and file them as you would paper-based correspondence. Printouts must be marked to show that they are copies of material received in electronic form.