Which Old Journal Pages Should You Digitize?
If you are moving your journaling practice to a digital app, you do not have to transfer every page to make the change useful. Keep paper pages when their value depends on handwriting, layout, or the physical page; digitize pages you expect to search, reuse, or connect to current work. Leave repetitive schedules behind unless they contain something worth preserving, and keep the original notebook while you check any scans or photos. A one-notebook pilot can show what deserves a place in your digital system before you take on more.
Decide by how you will use each page
Ask one practical question: “Would I want to find or use this page digitally?” Then consider what would be lost if you only kept a digital copy. The Library of Congress’s [personal digital records guidance](https://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/records.html) says to decide which documents have long-term value and notes that drafts can sometimes contain details absent from final versions. It does not say to scan or save everything. Applied to a journal, that supports choosing pages for their future value rather than treating the notebook as a batch that must be fully digitized.
**Current task reference: a plan, checklist, or notes you still consult:** Digitize the relevant page or details. You can find and use it alongside current work.
**Meaningful archival page: a letter, milestone, decision, or account you may want to revisit:** Keep the paper; consider making a digital copy. The content may matter later, while the original preserves its physical form.
**Repetitive schedule: routine logs or calendars whose useful information is already represented elsewhere:** Leave it on paper or skip migration. Copying repeated entries can add work without making the information more useful.
**Page valued for its paper qualities: handwriting, color, layout, annotations, or an attached photo:** Keep the original; scan or photograph selectively if useful. A digital image can aid access, but it may not preserve the feel or every detail of the page.
These are starting points, not rules. A repetitive log may contain one unusual entry worth keeping. A page that looks archival may be private or too personal to place in an app. Choose according to your own purpose, privacy preferences, and storage habits.
Keep a page on paper when the physical page matters
Paper can hold more than words: the way a page is laid out, marks added over time, the texture of handwriting, or a photograph tucked inside. If those qualities are part of why you value the page, retain the notebook even if you also make a digital copy. Treat the copy as another way to view or find the material, not as proof that the paper has become unnecessary.
Photos can be awkward to reproduce faithfully with a quick phone capture. The Library of Congress’s [scanning guide for personal collections](https://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/scanning_collections.pdf) explains that choices such as resolution and color affect a scan, and discusses scanning documents and photographs for later access, reprinting, or sharing. That guide can help if you decide to scan; it does not make scanning a requirement. For a page where appearance matters, inspect the copy at a useful size and compare it with the original. Keep the paper if the image loses details you care about.
Digitize pages that support work you still do
A page earns a digital place when it helps with a present task: a list you return to, a project plan, or notes you need to search. You do not necessarily need to reproduce the entire page. If only a few details remain useful, enter those details in the digital journal and note where the original lives. If context, wording, or layout matters, keep a scan or photo as well.
Before copying a page, decide where it will go and how you will find it. A dated filename or a consistent journal section can work; the important point is that the copy should be identifiable later. The Library of Congress advises giving selected digital documents descriptive filenames and organizing them in folders. For journal material, a simple label such as “2019 notebook, project notes, p. 18” may be more useful than a generic name like “scan001.” Avoid putting sensitive details in filenames if that would expose them where the file is stored or synced.
Run a small pilot with one old notebook
A pilot lets you learn how much migration actually helps before you repeat the process. Choose one notebook with a manageable mix of pages, then work through it in this order:
**Set a purpose.** Write down what you want the digital journal to help you find or do. This might be retrieving project notes or revisiting selected milestones—not recreating the entire notebook.
**Skim and mark candidates.** Flag pages that support that purpose, pages with lasting personal value, and pages whose physical qualities matter. Do not copy routine entries just because they are easy to capture.
**Choose the right kind of copy.** Enter concise details for information you will reuse; scan or photograph pages when their wording, annotations, or layout matters. Keep the paper for pages you want to retain in their original form.
**Check the copies.** Open each file or entry and confirm it is complete, legible, correctly oriented, and stored where you expect. For photos or color pages, look for details that may have been lost. Fix or recapture a poor copy before relying on it.
**Review the result.** Ask whether the digital entries are easy to locate and worth maintaining. If not, simplify your categories or narrow the kinds of pages you transfer before trying another notebook.
Keep the original notebook at least until you have checked the digital copies. The Library of Congress’s scanning guidance describes checking scan quality and organizing and backing up digital collections; its personal-records advice recommends multiple copies of selected digital documents and periodic checks that files remain readable. Those are preservation practices for the copies you choose to keep. They do not imply you should discard the paper source. If the notebook contains important material, retaining it also gives you a fallback if a scan is incomplete or a file becomes unavailable.
Make a final keep, copy, or skip decision
At the end of the pilot, sort pages into three practical choices: **keep on paper**, **keep on paper and make a digital copy**, or **skip migration**. Use “skip” for pages that do not serve your current digital-journal task and do not have enough personal or archival value to copy. You can leave them in the notebook without making a decision to destroy them.
If a page is difficult to classify, keep it on paper for now. Selective migration is reversible: you can digitize more later if a real need appears. The goal is a digital journal that helps with chosen tasks while letting meaningful pages—and the originals behind any copies—remain available in the form you prefer.