Everyone's An Archivist Archives - Permanent.org https://www.permanent.org/blog/category/preservation/everyones-an-archivist/ Nonprofit. Secure. Digital Archives. Thu, 12 Jun 2025 21:49:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.permanent.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-Permanent-Icon-512-32x32.png Everyone's An Archivist Archives - Permanent.org https://www.permanent.org/blog/category/preservation/everyones-an-archivist/ 32 32 Documenting Local Stories Builds Community Identity https://www.permanent.org/blog/documenting-local-stories-builds-community-identity/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/documenting-local-stories-builds-community-identity/#respond Thu, 12 Jun 2025 21:46:01 +0000 https://www.permanent.org/?p=8751 Preserving your story isn’t just about memory. It’s about identity, belonging, and connection. When we document local stories, we help build stronger, more inclusive communities. And the best part? It all starts with you.

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/documenting-local-stories-builds-community-identity/feed/ 0 The Importance of and Opportunities for Community Archiving on Permanent https://www.permanent.org/blog/communityarchiving/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/communityarchiving/#respond Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:48:36 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=6107 Permanent supports community archiving through our Byte4Byte granting program, which allows our grantees and partners to secure 100GB of cloud storage and intern support for their unique projects and efforts in this area.

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/communityarchiving/feed/ 0 Gathering & Transferring Your Digital Materials in One Place https://www.permanent.org/blog/gathering-and-transferring-your-digital-materials-in-one-place/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/gathering-and-transferring-your-digital-materials-in-one-place/#respond Wed, 28 Feb 2024 18:20:46 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=6067 Transferring digital materials from external devices to a central location is an important step in getting your materials ready to add to your Permanent archive.  Here’s a step-by-step guide and considerations to help you through the process. Gather digital assets and make a list. Many people have digital files, photos, and assets in a range of formats, on multiple devices, and in various cloud services. You’ll want to gather any devices that have materials you want to transfer living on them, as your first step. This could include USB drives, external hard drives, memory cards, smartphones, or any other storage devices. Additionally, you’ll want to make a list of the other places you know your ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/gathering-and-transferring-your-digital-materials-in-one-place/feed/ 0 Tips for Preserving Your Physical Materials https://www.permanent.org/blog/tips-for-preserving-your-physical-materials/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/tips-for-preserving-your-physical-materials/#respond Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:24:39 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=6023 Even if you preserve your digital materials on Permanent.org, there’s still something undeniably special about physical archives. Whether it’s a collection of family photographs, historical documents, or cherished memorabilia, these tangible pieces of history hold unique significance and should not be discarded. However, ensuring their longevity requires proper care and preservation techniques. By following a few simple tips, you can safeguard your physical materials and pass them on to future generations in the best condition possible. Handling and Preparing Your Materials It’s crucial to understand how to handle and prepare your materials properly before you even decide where and how to store them. These simple precautions can make a world of difference in preserving your ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/tips-for-preserving-your-physical-materials/feed/ 0 How to Build an Archive, One Story at a Time. https://www.permanent.org/blog/how-to-tell-a-story-for-your-archive/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/how-to-tell-a-story-for-your-archive/#respond Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:05:20 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=5985 Why are stories important? Since the dawn of human civilization, stories have been created to help us make sense of the world around us. These stories captured anything from explanations of why the sun rose every morning to harrowing escapes from animal predators. Until written languages were developed and recorded onto sheets of papyrus or clay tablets, oral histories reigned supreme. Like a game of telephone, stories told orally from person-to-person are susceptible to change as people forget, embellish, or invent new parts to the story as they pass them along from person to person. Historically, not everyone has had access to sheets of papyrus or clay tablets to record their stories. In fact, many ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/how-to-tell-a-story-for-your-archive/feed/ 0 Archive in the Moment with the Share to Permanent Mobile Feature https://www.permanent.org/blog/archive-in-the-moment-with-the-share-to-permanent-mobile-feature/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/archive-in-the-moment-with-the-share-to-permanent-mobile-feature/#respond Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:09:37 +0000 https://www.permanent.org/?p=4879 It can be a challenge to find the time to preserve the files that make up your digital legacy. Now, ensuring that those memories are preserved only takes a few extra taps. We are excited to announce the Share to Permanent feature on the Permanent mobile apps, which helps you actively preserve important files with ease as you create or receive them.  The Share to Permanent feature adds the Permanent app to the share menu on your mobile device. This allows you to export photos and files to Permanent from your email, text message, or any location on your mobile device, without opening the Permanent app. With Share to Permanent, you don’t have to save ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/archive-in-the-moment-with-the-share-to-permanent-mobile-feature/feed/ 0 Story Gathering: The Coming Together of Shared Memories https://www.permanent.org/blog/story-gathering/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/story-gathering/#respond Tue, 28 Jun 2022 21:46:39 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=4707 Which comes first, the photo or the memory?

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/story-gathering/feed/ 0 The Letter https://www.permanent.org/blog/the-letter/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/the-letter/#respond Thu, 26 May 2022 08:30:00 +0000 https://permanent.org/?p=4519 Take an old letter, add some photographs, and create a place for family to share stories.

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/the-letter/feed/ 0 FamilyHistory with Permanent.org Part 2 of 4: Preparing Your Family History Documents for Digitization https://www.permanent.org/blog/preparing-your-family-history-documents-for-digitization/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/preparing-your-family-history-documents-for-digitization/#respond Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:52:34 +0000 https://35.161.73.71/blog/preparing-your-family-history-documents-for-digitization/ Describing Your Documents the Archivist Way I hope you enjoyed the first blog in this series, because we are now moving to the next step of your digitizing journey.  So how do we know, or remember, what we have? We write it down. It is important not only to preserve the materials but also the who, what, where, when, and why of our collections. As we all know, we won’t be here forever, but these collections might be. We have to write down the collection’s story, so our grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or researchers can understand the collection.  If you have visited an archive to do research, you were probably given a finding aid for a collection ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/preparing-your-family-history-documents-for-digitization/feed/ 0 Everyone’s an Archivist: Creating Coherent Collections https://www.permanent.org/blog/creating-coherent-collections/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/creating-coherent-collections/#respond Thu, 12 Sep 2019 19:21:08 +0000 http://35.161.73.71/everyones-an-archivist-creating-coherent-collections/ This is a guest post by Nina Tarnawsky, a graduate student at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus in archival work. Nina has worked at the Harry Ransom Center and is currently a University Archives Intern at the Dolph Briscoe Library. Do you struggle to find what you’re looking for on your hard drive? Are your files in a such a jumble that even your computer’s search function is of no help? Don’t descend into a digital despair. There is a straightforward way to bring order to your chaos. How the pros do it Records Managers use file naming conventions to organize files at companies large and small. This is ...

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]]> https://www.permanent.org/blog/creating-coherent-collections/feed/ 0 Everyone’s an Archivist: Organizing Your Files for the Future. https://www.permanent.org/blog/organizing-your-files-for-the-future/ https://www.permanent.org/blog/organizing-your-files-for-the-future/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2019 19:22:26 +0000 http://35.161.73.71/everyones-an-archivist-organizing-your-files-for-the-future/ This is a guest post by Nina Tarnawsky, a graduate student at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus in archival work. Nina has worked at the Harry Ransom Center and is currently a University Archives Intern at the Dolph Briscoe Library. When you think of an archive – if you think of one at all – you probably conjure up a quiet room with mahogany paneling, large leather chairs, thick carpeting, and rows of researchers sitting quietly over folders of documents. You’re not far off, though the mahogany paneling and large leather chairs are disappearing. However, archives aren’t just academic repositories anymore. Your computer, cell phone, and tablet all form ...

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