Resources

Archival Concepts

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  Why is Describing Archival Materials Important for Community Archives?
  Archives can be like a black box. Description is like carving a window into the black box; the better the description, the bigger the window.
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  Gift Agreements
  In an archival context, gift agreements transfer the physical ownership of materials from groups or individuals to an institution. Gift agreements should clearly lay out what the donor can expect from the institution and vice versa.
• What Happens to Your Collection When It Goes to an Archive?
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  What is a Community Archive?
  Community archives and other community-centric history, heritage, and memory projects work to empower communities to tell, protect, and share their history on their terms.
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  What is a Charrette?
  A charrette is a focus group that brings together a wide variety of stakeholders in order to map solutions.
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  What is a Community?
  When we talk about communities, we aren’t just talking about towns that exist right here, right now with neatly registered zip codes.
• Why Archives Matter
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  Copyright and Community-Driven Archives
  When it comes to protecting intellectual property that is part of your or your community’s history, it helps to understand what legal rights apply to your materials.
• Copyright and Legal Issues in Archives
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  Types of Digital Storage
  The difference between preserving something and making something accessible to the public is important for communities to consider when managing digital files.
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  Sample Oral History Consent Form
  Before conducting an oral history interview, make sure to create a consent form for you and your interviewee to sign.
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  Why are Oral Histories Important for Community-Driven Archives?
  From the beginning, the Community-Driven Archives Team has prioritized oral history training and the collection of oral histories as a key part of our work.
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  How to Work with Archival Materials
  Archival items, like photos and documents, let you discover history firsthand. Following a general research format can help you find amazing histories.
• Archives 101

Archival Skills

• Planning and Starting a Digital Project
• Conducting Oral History Interviews
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  Basics of Preserving Digital Files
  3 simple rules for preserving digital files.
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  Safeguarding and Sharing Your Home Archive
  Here are some tips to maintaining a vibrant and safe home archive.
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  Creating a Digital File Naming System
  When organizing your digital files, it is important to be consistent in what you name them and the information you collect and save about them. This information is called metadata. Use this tool to create your own metadata system for your digital items.
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  Working with Digital Materials
  This guide will help you decide how to prioritize your digital files for preservation, how to safeguard and store your files, and how to digitize analog or paper items.
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  Oral History Question Cards
  These question cards feature suggested topics and prompts to guide you through a simple oral history interview. We created them for our Archivist in a Backpack kits.
• Digital Archives: Management, Access, Preservation
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  Archivist in a Backpack Supplies List
  Build your own Archivist in a Backpack kit! This list includes links to all of the items we purchased, as well as suggestions for the number of items to include per kit.
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  An Introduction to Oral History and Genealogy Projects
  Oral history interviews and genealogy projects are a wonderful way to document and connect about family stories and cultural history.

Storytelling

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  Storytelling Ideas
  There are many ways to tell a story, through exhibits, digital projects, unfurlings, or participatory events. Pick the style that tells your story best and use these guidelines to keep you organized and on track.
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  Storytelling through Community-Driven Archives (overview)
  Traditionally, archivists stick to access and preservation and leave interpretation and storytelling to the researchers. But what happens when we listen to what our audiences want? We find ways to help them tell meaningful stories about their communities’ history.
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  Black Communities Conference Charrette Activity
  Our team used charrettes to support project planning for a local group’s community archives project. This exercise supports a fledgling project in brainstorming, networking, and connecting with community members.
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  Crafting the Story of an Exhibition
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  Using Archival Materials for Research
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  Presenting “Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia”
  From 2017-19, the Community-Driven Archives (CDA) grant team and the Southern Historical Collection collaborated with Dr. Karida Brown while she was a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University, along with many Appalachian families on the Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project (EKAAMP).
• Storytelling Basics
• How to Participate in a Community Archive Project
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  Collaborating with Archives and Cultural Heritage Institutions on Community Memory Projects
  Here are some tips on how to find and create a sustainable and equitable partnership to help your history project thrive.
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  Announcing the Launch of the Student Health Coalition Project Website
  Introducing a pioneering online archive about student activism in the 1960s and 70s, a digital home for video clips, historic photos, and personal profiles from former activists in the rural South with a focus on health care.

Sustaining Archives

• Exploring the Nuance of Community-Driven Archives: A Conversation with Archives Practitioners Jimmy Zavala and Nancy Godoy
  What happens when large research university libraries engage in community outreach around archives and community memory? What should other university libraries know before embarking on community-driven archives projects? What should communities be aware of when they are approached to participate in these types of partnerships? Is it possible to generate and sustain more dynamic relationships… Continue reading Exploring the Nuance of Community-Driven Archives: A Conversation with Archives Practitioners Jimmy Zavala and Nancy Godoy
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  Steps for Starting a Community-Institutional Partnership
  The success of partnerships between communities and institutions often depends on the level of compatibility between the partners on issues of power and equity.
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  History Harvest Worksheet
  As digital technology has become more accessible, archival practitioners have promoted “history harvests” or “community scan days” as opportunities for archives and libraries to preserve digital copies of historical items while community members retain their original copies.
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  Checklist for Evaluating a Partner Archive for Your Collection
  Are you wondering if partnering with a larger institution might be a good way to support your community archive? Strategic partnership can support you and your project as you grow. The first step towards a successful partnership is to identify what you are looking for in a partner institution.
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  Collection Development Policy Exercise
  Who are you? What do you care about? How do your materials tell a story that no one else can tell? These are the questions at the heart of collection development work.
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  Evaluation Strategy for Building Collections
  A guide for determining what is and what is not appropriate for your collection
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  What’s in an Archive? Deciding Where Your Historical Materials Will Live
  Not everyone is able to or wants to be responsible for the long-term care of archival materials, but many still wonder, “Who can I trust to be the steward of my important historical records?” The answer is different for everyone.
• Collection Development Basics
• Building and Managing a Non-Profit
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  Donating Your Materials to an Archive
  One of the most lasting things you can do is contribute your own historical materials to repository such as an archive, special collections library, historical society, or museum.