Adopting Digital Preservation for a Legacy of Caring

Digitized Register for Cayuga Asylum

Technology is so engrained in our everyday lives that it can be hard to imagine a time when the only evidence of one’s ancestry was a single handwritten line in an archive across the country. But before the age of virtual records and digital paper trails, this was the only option for some people hunting […]

Holding History in Our Hands

One of Anderson Archival's team members

Creating Life-Altering Memories “I am honored to work for a company where I get to help our clients preserve historical documents,” says content specialist Marcia Spicer of her work at Anderson Archival. “Whether they are the private memories from someone who never imagined their words would survive through the generations or a public collection that […]

What Should I Digitize? 3 Ways to Decide

How do you choose what to digitize?

If you’ve uncovered a box of records or your organization just inherited a building full of community archives, how do you determine what should be digitized first? What can be deprioritized and why? Prioritizing the materials in your collection is no small challenge, especially for non-profits and institutions that value their history and mission. Trying […]

3 Ways to Make Your Historical Archive Impactful Today

Woman with photo of younger self

In leisure time alone, the average human processes at least 34 gigabytes of information daily. On the internet, this looks like their newsfeed, the endless scroll of what friends and acquaintances are doing at any given moment, and the 24-hour news cycle. Even if a user is searching for something specific, they’re bound to be […]

Hunting for History – And the Perfect Digital Archive

Witch House 1642

For years, the city of Salem, Massachusetts has been collecting, preserving, and slowly digitizing historical records dating back 400 years. Salem, most notable to laypeople as the location of the infamous witch trials, is home to a rich variety of historical organizations. Many of these organizations have digitally shared their own collections, but in October […]

Digitizing the Oldest Black Newspaper in America—One Photograph at a Time

The Afro American

When John H. Murphy founded The Afro-American newspaper in 1892, his goal was to combine three separate church publications into a single-page newsletter. Murphy was both a former slave and a Civil War veteran, and in the Reconstruction era, The Afro-American served to inform and unite his Maryland community. Little did he know, it would […]

Quotables: Launching Your Legacy: How You Can Impact the Next Generation (Just Luxe)

Just Luxe logo

Principal Farica Chang’s post in Just Luxe discusses the importance of conserving your legacy for the next generation. Whether that conservation is physical or done through digitization, ensure that family, community, and society members can access their history. Click here to read the full article! Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like […]

Visit Your Collection – From Home?

Cloud bookshelf

The global response to COVID-19 has included mass closures, urging the public to stay at home and “shelter in place.” These conditions are not exactly conducive to visiting collections of art, books, or historical documents. Unfortunately, that means the majority of research, study, and reference has come to a stuttering halt. Unless, of course, the […]

Building a Demonstration Collection, Part 1: First Steps

technology transition

Every collection is unique. The Anderson Archival team is comprised of history and digitization enthusiasts who love a good process, thrive on curveballs, and take joy in building something from the ground up. When Anderson Archival launched as a division of Anderson Technologies, one of the first discussions we had in-house was the need for […]