how to preserve your family memories, letters and trinkets - where to buy a document camera

Denise Levenick is a historian of her family.
She's not a professional archivist, but she's
Practice one, run a blog called Family Curator and always try to learn more.
But even her family makes mistakes.
A few years ago, madam.
When livenick's son exploded in his washing machine, he lost almost everything that was of emotional value to him, and the water pipe burst, he put all the old stamps and the plastic cases where heir was put into a pool of mold growth.
Of course, accidents cannot be avoided.
But if he is slightly more strategic about his storage strategy, the damage to his beloved record may be mitigated.
A breathable file box, not a plastic box, could have prevented water condensation and put that box in the closet, no exposed pipes in the closet, very low humidity, the precious biography of heir could have been preserved.
But people don't usually think about their family documents and souvenirs until it's too late.
Good archival practice may not be the most exciting hobby, but it may be the key to keeping the family history intact for future generations.
Recently, a letter was written to Mary oay, the administrator of the Library of Congress, asking for help in archiving her father's personal documents.
He is a survivor of the massacre and uses diaries and documents as the primary source to teach his experiences to schoolchildren.
To keep them safe, he folded them up. Ms.
When she told the story, Oey sighed sadly --
Lamination is a terrible way to save files.
There is no way to save this patron's history.
"The only way to remove the paper from the lamination is to dissolve the plastic using a large amount of solvent," Ms. Oey said.
"Some of the harder stacks, we don't know how to get off the bus or protect the files.
The lamination itself will ruin a document that cannot be fixed.
"The lamination process itself may not only damage the fine paper, but also exert undue pressure on objects, causing them to tear, turn yellow or become brittle prematurely.
Maureen Callahan, archivist at the Smith College Sophia Smith Collection, said that for items like paper and fragile documents, the best thing you can do is control the environment in which they are stored
"Water and pests are the biggest enemies of paper," Ms. Li said. Callahan said.
"People also often store family records in the basement or in the attic, where temperatures and humidity can fluctuate drastically and water is more likely to enter. ”Your best bet? Ms.
Oey said it was a clean, dark space like the top of the linen closet.
With items such as printed photos and photo albums, it will be a great help to make things clean and tidy.
"The cleanliness of photos is almost as important as storage," Ms. Oey said.
Very important photos can be stored in
High quality paper clip (
Check to make sure they are acid free and wood free)
Or plastic sleeves like Mela.
But remember an important warning: it's better not to use sleeves than cheaper ones that scratch.
Every administrator interviewed by The Times recommended using cartons instead of plastic boxes for storage as they would not be as easy as breeding molds and not as fast as drying.
But the best option if you want to be fancy is to buy sour-
Free file boxes online or from suppliers such as container stores.
They may be a bit expensive, but stay the best in wet and moldy situations.
As important as knowing what to do is knowing what not to do.
"When I said we had seen horrible tape for miles, all the admins would agree with me," Ms. Oey said.
So remember: no tape (it sticks).
No paper clips or Staples (they can rust).
Absolutely no lamination.
There is absolutely no plastic box that can be filled with water.
Family files can include a variety of strange lives.
Maybe your grandmother has a huge collection of records or you have a box of photo slides in your garage and you don't know what to do.
In any case, a single project like this has no general rules other than common sense. But Ms.
Oey encourages individuals who do not know how to accomplish their archiving goals to find available experts.
Most of the major collection services have resources on their website that are saved, no matter what you want to save.
Expert tips for audio-visual materials, furniture, paintings, historical silver, and even personal digital movie types.
Most libraries have an online reference system called "Ask librarian" that allows individuals to talk to the protectors who can advise them on how best to deal with this strange project, or point them to an expert who can help, or help them find an administrator who can patch items (
Although this may be expensive).
The Library of Congress website is a good start.
And the old wedding dress in the closet?
Experts say it's better to have professional protectors handle it.
The Association of wedding experts has a list of guidelines and suggestions on its website. (
Still, the same rule applies if you still want to go on your own: have the professional clean it and then store it in an acid-free box in a cool dark space away from the water. )
Like paper archives, the most important part of archiving digital files is storage.
"How do you store your files and where to save it is always the most important form anyone can do," Ms. Oey said.
For example, the computer itself is not safe.
Anything important to you should not have only one digital file.
The archives staff said that the key to digital archiving is duplication.
There should be three of every important document.
Ideally, these three copies should be stored on at least two different storage media. Ms.
Levenick said she used 3-2-
1 backup method: three, two different media, at least one from home.
For example, you can store two digital wedding albums in desktop and cloud-based storage.
The first step in good digital practice is high resolution photos. Ms.
Oey recommends taking photos of good items (
Natural light is best).
"It would be great if you had a good digital camera like a SLR, but honestly, iPhone [
Or other smartphones.
Will work very well. ” (
Any smartphone camera is OK. )
You can also do it for you with a service of 60 cents per pop.
The second step is to store these files as securely as the original document.
While your digital photos will not be soaked in bursting pipes, keep them in good shape
It is equally important to maintain the environment.
"If you are using physical storage, you need to migrate from one hard drive to another on a regular basis," Ms. Oey said.
Including hard drives, flash drives, discs and anything else.
"Doing this every three to five years on average will keep your files safe and up to date.
"Online storage solutions can be weird and confusing, but fortunately, Wirecutter, a New York Times Company, already has a handy and comprehensive guide to help you choose.
Home archivists tend to ignore the preservation of audio and video because they are more technical than common sense, but they are equally important.
Recording-like reel-to-
Mini reel, cassette
Tape of answering machine
It can be easily translated into digital form as an MP3 file, but the quality is not high enough to replace the original recording.
Several archivists say that you can digitize audio anywhere from $400 to $40,000, and it must be a way for vendors to handle it (
Unless you want to be a digital hobby).
But it's more expensive if you have a lot of collections.
Many suppliers charge about $15 to digitize a box of tapes.
The recording Collection Association has a list of suppliers, as well as a large number of resources on the preservation of physical and digital sounds.
The same rules are followed for saving videos.
The trend is to store video in digital format instead of carrier
Dependent format.
Also, if you want to be a hobby of it, there is a lot of information to study.
The Museum and Library Services Institute gave a detailed description of all the trials that digitised the video and decided how to do it.
But for those who only want their video security, vendor help is a way.
Most video conversion vendors will charge around 20 cents per foot for 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm movie conversions.
For example, when it comes to other biography heir, vinyl records can be particularly dangerous and vulnerable to destruction, so it is recommended that you take them to a local supplier.
As with other types of archives, if you have something strange or unusual, it's better to call the archivist and get some dedicated tips.
Preventive care to pass heir is always easier than trying to repair broken items.
"Death and decay are inevitable. not everything is worth saving ,"Callahan said.
Everyone agrees that curation is probably the most important part of the filing.
She said: "We must have the ability to distinguish . " If there is a record, she added,
Keep overwhelming "you're unlikely to experience these, and the next generation may not know how to deal with them.