Welcome to the Iowa State University Library guide on digital file management. This guide will help you better organize your files so that they can easily be found, used, and shared by yourself and others.
File management describes how you handle your digital files, whether they are yours alone or shared with others.
Specifically, file management encompasses many activities that you may undertake when working with digital files: creating, organizing, updating, finding (and re-finding), and maintaining (keeping, archiving, and deleting) (Kyong Eun Oh 2022).
This guide targets a wide audience: anyone who manages digital files, including students, faculty, staff, and researchers. The topics it covers apply to individuals and teams who use and share digital files.
This guide will introduce the concepts you need to build your file management skills.
By practicing the recommendations in this guide, you (and your files) will gain the following benefits:
This guide focuses on organizing your files. Purposeful file organization supports all file management activities.
The following sections will guide you toward the successful organization of your files:
Additional sections offer tips and tools for maintaining and renaming your files:
Consultations are also available by request.
Megan O'Donnell, Research Data Services Lead
Heather Campbell, Head of Metadata Services
The library's collections and services are available to all ISU students, faculty, and staff and Parks Library is open to the public.
