Preserving What You Have-Taking Care of Your Home Movies, Audio, Paper and Digital Records
The most important thing you can do RIGHT NOW to preserve your family history is to back up ALL the digital files you have on your computer, including photographs, videos, genealogy database, notes, and research. One of the best backup tools is Backblaze. Backblaze is a simple, affordable way to back up your computer to the cloud. Once you’ve set it up it works in the background so you don’t have to think about it. Set it and forget it! And Backblaze offers UNLIMITED backup! Go to https://vidgen.me/blaze to get a free trial for Backblaze and experience how well it works. I use and love Backblaze!
http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/#audio-video-motion-pictures
The United States National Archives offers practical information for home archivists.
https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preserving-private-and-family-collections/caring-for-private-and-family-collections
NEDCC, or the Northeast Document Conservation Center offers this page on caring for private and family collections.
WeVideo.com makes editing easy with its online software. The cloud-based platform means you can use it with any operating system! You can choose either the simple storyboard mode or the almost as simple timeline mode to quickly put together a great looking video with music, narration and titles. They offer templates to make it easy to get started. We create an Ancestor Story Video using WeVideo in the Ancestors Alive On Video course. Click here to learn more.
You can try out WeVideo for free with a limited amount of finished videos. If you upgrade to the unlimited account be sure to use this link above to get the best discount available-60% off!.
Historic Digital Media
New York Public Library Digital Collection
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
Click in the search box and a “Search only public domain materials” checkbox appears. Click that option to limit your searches to materials you can use without copyright restriction. Another fab feature is the citation offered for each item with MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, or Wikipedia format options. As of January 2016 the collection offers over 180,000 digitized images in the public domain covering images from throughout the world. Along with a huge variety of photographs, available images include over 40,000 stereoscopes, maps, and sheet music. Photographic collections include:
- Berenice Abbott’s Federal Art project photographs of 1930s New York City
- Farm Security Administration photographs by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and others
- Artworks by African-American artists from the WPA-era
- Lewis Hine’s Ellis Island photographs of immigrants
…and so much more!
The Commons (on Flickr)
https://www.flickr.com/commons
When searching, use the “Search the Commons” lower on the page rather to confine your search to the Commons. A collective effort by archives worldwide to “to share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives.” The site encourages users to add tags and information to help catalog image. The FAQ has a wonderful explanation of “No Known Copyright Restrictions.”
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov
The Library of Congress website is a tremendous resource for historical images and documents from American history.
Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System.
Burgert Brothers Photographic Collection. http://hcplc.org/hcplc/research/burgert/
A collection of over 14,000 digitized public domain images captured by Burgert Brothers Photographers provides a view into early 20th Century Florida. While the collection emphasizes the Tampa and West Coast Florida area there are shots from other locations in the state including Silver Springs in Central Florida. Include the statement “Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System” when using images. As always, provide a photo credit and source citation so other historians can benefit.
Preserving What You Have-Taking Care of Your Home Movies, Audio, and Paper Records
http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/#audio-video-motion-pictures
The United States National Archives offers practical information for home archivists.
https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preserving-private-and-family-collections/caring-for-private-and-family-collections
NEDCC, or the Northeast Document Conservation Center offers this page on caring for private and family collections.