Reviews
Building a family archive emergency kit: before the crisis, not during it
Kit for the emergency you have not had yet: emergencies become disasters when nobody prepared. The short household kit, the one-page plan, and who to call.
Desk
Storage Desk
Boxes, sleeves and conditions that do not destroy what they hold.
Reviews
Home setup for digitizing family cassettes: deck, cleaning, and audio routing to a computer
Set up a playback deck, clean the tape path, route audio into a computer, set safe levels, and store family cassettes and captured files at home.
Reviews
Digitizing Family Oral Histories: A Workflow from Interview to Digital File
A step-by-step workflow for digitizing family oral histories, from recorder setup and consent notes to file naming, transcription, and safe storage.
Reviews
Oral history recording gear for family archives: what to buy first in 2027
Which recorder, microphone, and room setup to buy first for family oral history interviews in 2027, from XLR handhelds to dynamic mics and soft-room treatment.
Reviews
St. John's and Halifax storage compared for wet Atlantic family collections
Atlantic Canada archive storage compared: how damp, salt air and heating shape family papers in St. John's, Halifax, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
Maintenance
How Calgary dryness and chinooks affect paper, tape and static in storage
Calgary dryness and paper storage: how chinook humidity swings, static and adhesive failure affect documents, with humidity targets and handling changes.
Costs
What CBSA and Canada Post charge when you order archival supplies from the US
CBSA duty on archival supplies from the US adds GST, possible tariff, brokerage and Canada Post handling, so compare landed costs before ordering.
Maintenance
Storing a family archive through a Canadian winter: pick the room
Storing a family archive through a Canadian winter starts with the room, not the box. Compare spare rooms, closets, basements and garages before October.
Maintenance
What coastal damp does to a Vancouver home archive and how to counter it
Vancouver home archive and coastal damp: how mould, humidity and ventilation threaten paper, plus storage, monitoring and dehumidifier steps that work.
Guides
Fireproof Safe for Documents: UL Ratings That Actually Matter
A fireproof safe for documents is only as good as its UL 72 class. Compare paper and media safes, endurance times and the one limit they all share.
Reviews
A detection and containment checklist for archive mistakes before they spread
Kit for finding problems before they spread: the monitoring and containment kit for a home archive, what to buy for detection, what isolation actually requires.
Industry
Archive risk starts with inspecting the building, not just the boxes
Inspection routine that catches problems early: active and passive detection explained, how often to inspect a home collection, what to look at in a building.
Reviews
A first kit for a family archive, and what it leaves out in 2027
The short list of supplies that earns its place on a family archive first pass, in buying order, plus the equipment worth delaying until you know the size.
Reviews
Photo digitization at home: resolution and consistency
How the National Archives frames resolution, why consistent settings matter, and what to record when preparing a home photo-scanning workflow.
Guides
Book lice in a document cupboard: what the insects tell you about damp
Psocids in a cupboard as a humidity warning: the 58 percent threshold, what a sealed box can and cannot do, and storing papers in a small flat.
Guides
Memory display practice for a weekend: reversible paste and mat windows
Weekend spent learning to mount and support: a two-day practice plan done entirely on scrap and copies, cooking a reversible paste, cutting mat windows.
Reviews
Work surfaces for sorting a family archive: the 2027 view
Choosing a table for archive work: size, height, light and the rules about food, drink and pens that make a household surface behave like a reading room.
Industry
When to hand framing or mounting work to a professional, and five questions to ask
When framing or mounting should go to document preservation companies instead of your own hands, five questions for a shop, and where conservators are listed.
Industry
Conservation basics move into a family archive, but not every one survives
What institutional practice teaches a household collection: the conservation basics that transfer from an archive to a house, the ones that need a building.