Do you have boxes of documents that need to be organized? LivesArchived provides a place where you can store and exhibit these important materials. However, sometimes you may not be able to tell what’s worth saving and archiving digitally. LivesArchived is paired with the Internet Archive, so you can be sure your archive will be saved forever. Therefore, you’ll want to select your most cherished items to upload.
Here’s 4 types of archives that you can create to preserve your documents in a safe, easy, and permanent space:
1. Biography
If you want to create an archive as a biography of your own life (or a close friend or relative), LivesArchived allows for many different types of documents.
Before you begin uploading, you can use the biography text box to write a few paragraphs about your life. Include where you were born and grew up, where you went to school, work experience, and current living situation. You can select a recent head-shot as your archive’s profile picture.
Ideally, the photos you upload for your biography archive should focus on you. Include old school pictures, photos of yourself while traveling or at significant events in your life. Make sure to include a short but descriptive caption to add context to the photos if you want your archive to be public! Similarly, your videos should record your own life, such as home videos from childhood birthday parties, wedding videos, etc. You can even upload audio recordings for your musical performances or oral presentations.
There are also a variety of documents you can display in your biography archive. Include diplomas and awards, scholarly or professional written work, your artwork, newspaper clippings, and any other personal or professional achievements.
As for what not to archive: don’t include documents about too many other people! The biography should clearly preserve and display artifacts from one person’s life.
Explore Sean Dippold’s biography archive as an example here!
2. Memorial
Ideally, LivesArchived would be used by an individual to preserve their own life documents. Unfortunately, loved ones often pass away without the opportunity to organize, store, and curate these materials themselves. If you’re using LivesArchived to create a memorial for a lost friend or family member, you’ll want to select the most cherished documents that showcase the best of a person’s life. Select files just like a biography archive. Be respectful. While you may want to include an obituary as part of the archive, the documents and biography should focus on celebrating one’s life and accomplishments.
Kathy Hunt recorded her late father’s legacy in this memorial archive.
3. Family History
Have a lot of documents from your family history? You can also create an archive for your whole family! Title the archive with your last name instead and upload as many family documents as you want. Include family reunion photos, Grandma’s recipe cards, letters between family members, household construction plans, home videos, etc.
If you’re worried about old, fragile family documents decaying with time, LivesArchived provides a great opportunity to digitize and store pieces of your family history through the Internet Archive. We even offer to scan documents for you.
Robin Gow has just begun compiling the Gow Family history in this example archive.
4. Portfolio
Finally, you can use LivesArchived to display and acclaim your own professional portfolio. If you are a visual artist, photographer, writer, etc., your work can be both preserved forever and exhibited to the public, so include samples of your best work!
Your biography text can present your professional interests, skills, education, and experience in a personal tone. Feel free to be creative! Upload audio files of readings from your work, include videos of professional interviews you’ve done, display photos from your workplace or college, showcase all of your accolades and awards in your archive documents. LivesArchived isn’t just a place to store your resume, but to present your work portfolio and accomplishments to the public.
Journalist Kathy Hunt used LivesArchived to curate her professional portfolio here.
Additionally, LivesArchived supports most common photo, text, video, and audio file types. For a full list of formats you can upload, check out our FAQ here: http://support.livesarchived.com/faq/what-types-of-things-and-formats-can-i-upload/
Inspired by these 4 archive examples? Register and begin creating your own unique archive here: https://livesarchived.com/authentication/signup
