Not just a gift. It's history in the making. Family history is important. Photos, videos, aged documents, and cherished papers--these are the memories that you want to save. And they need a better home than a cardboard box. Creating Family Archives is a book written by an archivist for you, your family, and friends, taking you step-by-step through the process of arranging and preserving your own family archives. It’s the first book of its kind offered to the public by the Society of American Archivists. Gathering up the boxes of photos and years of video is a big job. But this fascinating and instructional book will make it easier and, in the end, much better.

Margot Note is an archives consultant, a professor in the graduate women's history program at Sarah Lawrence College, and an adjunct assistant professor in the library and information science program at St. John’s University. She received her master of arts in women's history from Sarah Lawrence College, and holds a master's in library and information science and post-master’s in archives and records management from Drexel University.

Why I Wrote This Book . . . . . . . . . . .v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
1 Let’s Get Started! . . . . .1
2 Make Your Memories Last . . . .11
3 Handle Your Materials with Care . . . . . . . . .21
4 Take Stock of What You Have . . . . . . .29
5 What to Keep, Toss, or Give Away . . . .36
6 Buy Your Supplies . . . . . .50
7 Process Your Collections . . . .. .59
8 Preserve Your Papers . . . . .75
9 Preserve Your Photographs . . .. .84
10 Preserve Your Scrapbooks and Albums . . . .98
11 Preserve Your Books . . . . .108
12 Store, Display, and Share Your Archives . . . .115
13 Making Your Collections Digital . . . . . . .125
14 Preserve Your Digital Collections . . . . .144
Now Go Have Fun and Save Those Family Memories .154
Resources . . . . . . . . .156
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Index . . . . . . . . . . . .167