Our photo albums, letters, home movies and paper documents are a vital link to the past. Personal information we create today has the same value. The only difference is that much of it is now digital. Chances are that you want to keep some digital photos, e-mail, and other files so that you—and your family—can look at them in the future. But preserving digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with.
This website was created by graduate Library Science students at the Catholic University of America with the intent of establishing a central location for information and video tutorials to help individuals who need a starting point for their personal archiving projects. Using resources from the Library of Congress and American Library Association, as well as calling upon coursework and class discussion, the daunting task was broken down into three manageable parts: scanning, storing, and sharing. Each link in the bar above contains information and videos describing steps in the personal archiving process in each of these categories.
In conjunction with Preservation Week events and materials, this website stands as a resource for personal archiving and family preservation activities.