Getting Started: Preservation Guides for Your Personal Archive

Preserving Your History (Austin History Center)
https://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/preserving-your-history
A list of general Dos and Don’ts for personal archiving along with material-specific best practices for audio tapes, books and papers, digital photographs, CDs and DVDs, photographs, and video tape.

Preserving Your Digital Memories (Library of Congress)
http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/
A series of guides, videos, and other resources on how to create your own digital archive for your family materials. Includes how-tos on scanning, low-cost digitization solutions, and working with born-digital formats such as email, photographs, websites, audio, and video

A/V & Digital Archiving Resources from XFR Collective
https://xfrcollective.wordpress.com/resources
Informational materials, tutorials, as well as other useful resources on basic video preservation.

Digitizing Family Papers and Photographs (National Archives)
https://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/digitizing

Genealogy Basics Chapter Five: Digitizing and Storing Photos and Documents (My Heritage Blog)
https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/09/genealogy-basics-chapter-five-digitizing-and-storing-documents-and-photos

DCPL Memory Lab’s Resources
https://libguides.dclibrary.org/memorylab/resources
The District of Columbia Public Library’s Memory Lab is a National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) project to create sustainable, public-focused lab, tools, and instruction for building public knowledge and skills around personal digital record keeping. Their resource list includes guides for taking care of physical and digital objects and where to find other libraries with Memory Labs. You can also follow some of their lab instructions with your own equipment at home or see slides from their trainings.

Preserve This Podcast!
Zine: https://preservethispodcast.org/assets/PreserveThisPodcast_Zine_Online.pdf
Podcast: http://preservethispodcast.org
Preserve This Podcast! is an Andrew W. Mellon grant-funded project hosted by the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) to help podcasters protect their work against the threats of digital decay. These resources contain helpful tips for preserving digital files in general, but especially audio files, including oral histories.

Social Control Zine
https://www.docnow.io/workshops/social-control-2019
An easy-to-follow guide to saving your social media content. Check out more preservation zines at the Memory Lab’s virtual library: https://memorylabnetwork.github.io/zines.

Archival Supplies & Storage

Conservation Resources International, http://www.conservationresources.com

Gaylord Archival, http://www.gaylord.com

Hollinger Metal Edge, http://www.hollingermetaledge.com

Light Impressions, http://lightimpressionsdirect.com

University Products, http://www.universityproducts.com

Archival Methods, https://www.archivalmethods.com

Oral Histories & Family Interviewing

Conducting Oral Histories with Family Members (UCLA)
https://www.library.ucla.edu/destination/center-oral-history-research/resources/conducting-oral-histories-family-members
Tips and resources for preparing for a family oral history, including interview techniques, recording equipment, and sample questions

FamilySearch Memories & Family Tree Apps
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-apps-oral-histories
These two free apps from FamilySearch allow you to record and incorporate oral histories into your own family tree

TheirStory
https://theirstory.io/welcome
A digital platform (paid) that streamlines the process for any community to collect, preserve, and engage with the audiovisual stories of the individuals that make up their community.

Trauma-Informed Interviewing for General Audiences
Texas After Violence Project, https://vimeo.com/430151906
By learning to integrate trauma-informed interviewing practices into your work, you’ll reduce the risk of harm or re-traumatization for the people you interview, whether you are conducting interviews as part of an oral history project, academic research, activist work, or for the media (https://texasafterviolence.org).

Oral History Interviews (Library of Congress, The American Folklife Center)
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/familyfolklife/oralhistory.html

Oral History Association Principles and Best Practices
https://www.oralhistory.org/principles-and-best-practices-revised-2018

Express Scribe Transcription Software
http://www.nch.com.au/scribe

Disaster Response

Salvage Procedures (National Archives)
https://www.archives.gov/preservation/disaster-response/salvage-procedures.html
Guidelines for the care of some of the more common materials to be affected by a natural disaster or other emergency

Disaster Relief for Films in Flooded Areas (Association of Moving Image Archivists)
https://amia.typepad.com/home_movie_recovery

What I Would Have Done Differently to Save my Family History from Disaster
https://www.organizingphotos.net/family-history-disaster

Episode 56: Disaster Preparedness for the Family Photo Archive
https://maureentaylor.com/episode-56-disaster-preparedness-for-the-family-archive

Find a Conservator
https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/find-a-conservator

Should I share my family collection with an archive?

“Donating Your Family Archives” (blog post by archival consultant Margot Note)
https://www.margotnote.com/blog/2019/05/13/donate-your-family-archives

Donating Your Personal or Family Records to a Repository
Society of American Archivists https://www2.archivists.org/publications/brochures/donating-familyrecs

Resource list developed by: Ayshea Khan, Tara Maharjan, Nicolette Khan, Amber Abbas, and Neel Agrawal