Preserving and Archiving
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How do you preserve and archive documents and photos? What are some good ideas and resources for keeping these items safe and making it easier to work with them? I had planned to look for a hand scanner to archive the dairies I am transcribing, so that I could work from the scans and give the hard copy to a state historical society. When I mentioned the idea on Facebook, some friends had good advice about photographing them, instead. These were a couple of good websites they suggested. I'm working on setting up a usable copy stand. Photographing and Scanning Old Photos and Documents http://www.subchaser.org/photographing-documents Using a Copy Stand - Or Faking It http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wflawrence/dig3_2.htm
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  • Hello everyone,

    It's been 2.5 years since we were active here. I hope you all are well, and that your projects have been moving along.

    I'm still working on the project I was working on last time we communicated here, and a lot has happened.

    I trust the same is true for you.

    The reason I thought of this group, was a Library of Congress link aboutPreservation of Digital materials, something we were already talking about 2.5 years ago. Check it out, all possible files are listed.

  • Update on my ScanCafe adventure. It's been a few months since ScanCafe returned my originals with the DVDs of the digital imaging. To be honest, I was scared to death the originals would get lost, the company wouldn't deliver what they promised, but they did and I'm so pleased with their and my accomplishment. They treat your material as though it's your baby, updating you from the get go. From the moment they received the box with my dia-positive slides and some negatives through the whole process I got updates from them. I highly recommend this company. I signed up with them, and then waited, and waited until they offered me the right deal. That in itself took a few months. If you're not wanting to wait, they already offer a good deal. Yesterday I accomplished another task: saving old CWK and Appleworks documents as Word files. It was an enormous job, that took me about nine months (yes the baby is fine, thank you). Now I can look at my earlier writing on my new iMac and start assembling pieces and sections. Very exciting! Ready to get on with the show.
  • Nancy, I second Lisa's response, good idea. I like the focus on Kentucky and would like to see more of that! I understand your reluctance to share all, and would suggest you don't until you know more about your memoir as a whole. Perhaps you've already seen 10 steps to turning your blog into a bestseller by Pamela Redmond Satran. Priceless advice if you ask me.
  • What a great idea as a way to help with organization! It will also be very useful in terms of sharing information and excerpts with potential agents or publishers. Now you have made me revisit the idea of making Hattie's blog password-protected. Decisions, decisions.... I would just need to make sure that it doesn't confuse my older relatives too much, for whom the blog is really for. :)
  • Lisa, I forgot to mention that I constructed a new blog for the sole purpose of putting information, stories, correspondance, recipes, etc. for my memoir. Not every thing is visible to the public. A password is needed for some posts. I am very fortunate not to have to deal with slides, photos or historical documents. I am focusing only on the 16 yerars that I have been an Innkeeper and I have been documenting events, etc. for the past two years. Everything is accessible.
  • Lisa, I have finally worked out a format for my memoir. It doesn't look at all like Angelou's book, but there are some elements that are somewaht similar. I have lots and lots of recipes. And what I've done is to include one iat the end of just about every story (each story may become a charpter/not sure yet). IThere is always a connection between the recipe and the story. I've Found that utilizing my blogs, where I have most of my stories documented is working out well. I cut and past them into the main manuscript and rewrite and edit there. I'm using a program called Fastpencil right now. It has enabled me to break up the content up into large sections inside which there are smaller sections or chapters, if you will. So far, I've written maybe 20,000 words. The book seems to be writing itself, so it's been fairly smooth going. although the process has slowed down somewhat lately. Now it seems I have to give more thought to what I want to say and make more of an effort to tap into my memory. I have three readers, who are giving me feedback on cohesiveness, etc. as I go along. I feel this is definitely a memoir.