Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2007

FALL 2007
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PRESERVING YOUR MEMORIES

Taking the first steps in preserving your memories
Protecting family treasures
Writing your memoirs
Memory books: A slice of history
Scrapbooking today: A social way to preserve memories

Wouldn’t it be nice to put all of your favorite memories together in one place – maybe in a few boxes, written
down in a book, or pulled together in a scrapbook? There they’d be, waiting to be rediscovered by you or your kids, or friends and family.

It’s something you’ve been meaning to do one way or another. Everyone has boxes crammed with photos, or CDs lying around the house with hundreds of digital photos on them. Maybe you have been meaning to sit down and write about your family, or combine journaling and photographs into a nice scrapbook or “talking album.”

If you’re looking for inspiration to get your act together, and make sure your memories will be there – safe, preserved, and available for future generations – this story is for you.

Iowa State archivists, who have been busy this year with the university’s sesquicentennial, digging out old photographs and files, give a “how-to” on preserving your family treasures. Faculty give us their inspirational words on writing. And alumni and ISU staff who know all about scrapbooking give us insight into the trend. Turn the page for expert advice on preserving your memories.

Taking the first steps in preserving your memories (Return to top)

Want to pass your most treasured memories on to your kids and grandkids?

Or even just enjoy them 10 or 20 years from now? If you have boxes of photos in the attic, stacks of family movies out in the garage, and heirlooms stashed in the basement, the thought of going through it all can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. Tanya Zanish-Belcher, head of Special Collections at the Iowa State University Library, offers a simple four-step plan to preserving your family heirlooms.

Step 1: Select a small number of valuable items on which to spend time and effort
Zanish-Belcher recommends taking a step back to prioritize. Pick out the objects most important to you. In other words, forget your fantasy about getting all those photos into sleeves or albums and think about maybe picking 50-100 images to store properly. If you have hundreds of VHS tapes lying around, select a few for storage and possibly reproduction.

“You can’t collect or maintain everything,” said Zanish-Belcher. “If you try to do that, you’ll get overwhelmed. Then things will be lost or damaged due to lack of time.”

She advises to think about how much time and money you want to put into your collection. A larger selection requires more of both.

Step 2: Have a master plan
Zanish-Belcher says it is a good idea to have master copies of important items, as well as a copy for viewing. And never, never throw away originals. When VHS was all the rage, some folks converted their 8 mm and 16 mm family films to VHS and then threw away the originals. Now they’ve got VHS copies with a shorter lifespan than the original films.

“There’s nothing wrong with reel-to-reel audio tapes or 16 mm motion picture film if it is in good condition,” said Zanish-Belcher. “You simply need equipment to hear or view it. Special Collections might convert motion pictures to DVDs so that people can watch them, but we would never dispose of the original if it is still in good shape. That’s the master format.”
For digital masters, the goal is to have stable formats. For instance, you may want to consider creating a high resolution tif image as a master, in addition to creating some “surrogate” copies stored elsewhere.

Step 3: Make lots of copies in lots of formats, including digital
The more copies the better, in as many formats as possible, says Zanish-Belcher. She uses the example of oral histories. Recordings could be on digital and cassette. Another copy could be made for listening. Get it transcribed, then you’ve got a paper copy and a word document. In the end, there are five copies in four formats.

Creating backup copies of your digital materials and safely storing them is important, too. If you store back-ups on your home computer, a crash could eliminate them permanently. Alternatives are online networks or storage services or an external hard drive that you don’t use for anything else.

“Save high-quality versions of your images and other materials using storage devices such as gold CDs,” she said. “Gold CDs are going to be a higher quality than your standard CD.” For making photo printouts, use name-brand, high-quality paper and printers, as well as name-brand inks.

Nobody expects to experience a tornado, fire, or flood, but just in case, you might want to spread your copies around. Store your film negatives and important photographs in the appropriate housings in a climate-controlled space, with secondary master CDs of the digital versions possibly stored in a safety deposit box or with other family members. You may also want to consider online digital storage systems.

Step 4: Maintain your collection
Having a collection and preserving it is not a one-step process, particularly if there are digital formats involved.

“Once you’ve gotten your photos onto a gold CD, you can’t just throw it in a box,” says Zanish-Belcher. “When you find it 20 years later you likely won’t have a CD reader. Keep up with the technology enough so that you can be guaranteed there’s a way to read your materials.”

She says to stay on top of your digital materials by practicing “digital migration” – a continual transfer of digital materials with a goal to preserve them for the long-term. In short, move things from storage medium to storage medium, and when necessary save
to newer programs to keep them readable.

Also, check your collection every so often to make sure it’s still in good condition. This goes for CDs as well as papers, textiles, and photos. Make sure that where you’re storing it is still a safe place and mites or mold haven’t crept in.

TIP: What about those old floppy discs that hold your thesis?
Your best bet is to track down a company that can migrate your data into a format that's readable.

TIP: Go gold for CDs and DVDs.
They cost a little more, but they won't tarnish or oxidize like the silver ones. Do not use rewritable CDs. Do not use solvent-based markers to label; use a water-based felt-tipped marker. Never write on the underside, and try to write where there's no disc such as in the middle of the circle. Avoid stickers!

Media: Lost in translation?

It won’t be long before you can’t find a VHS player to view your wedding video.

“Every time a manufacturer comes out with a new media format, you’ve got a new possibility,” says Jerry Rogers, instructional support technician with Information Technology Services at ISU. “Generally, better and cheaper technology will keep replacing the old.”

His office mostly deals with making multiple copies of DVDs and CDs for clientele, but they also convert most media formats from the last 10 or 15 years to digital, including all VHS formats, most digital video/audio tapes or discs, and 16 mm film.

How much? Prices vary, but here are some ballpark figures:

90-minute cassette to CD = $13
120-minute VHS to DVD = $17
DVD copy to DVD = $3.20

Want to learn more?

What to do with videos
Videotapes have a relatively short life expectancy (10-30 years). Learn how to best care, clean, and store them at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/video/ or http://www.amianet.org/publication/resources/
guidelines/videofacts/about.html

What to do with old films

To care for small-gauge film –16 mm, 8 mm, and super 8 mm – a tutorial on basic handling, repairing, cleaning, and storage is available at http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/
graphics/film/filmtranscript.htm

If you suspect you may have some nitrate-based films which were used prior to 1951, they are highly flammable. Read about identifying them, safety, handling, and preservation at http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/technical/ storage_nitrate.jhtml?id=0.1.4.11.12.12&lc=
en#nbase

Protecting family treasures (Return to top)

You’ve picked out your most important family trea-
sures. It’s a small collection, maybe 20 photographs,
a couple of newspaper clippings, the quilt your grandma made, and your wedding video. Now what? Hilary Seo, department head of preservation at Parks Library, gives some advice on the basics of protecting your treasures.

#1 most important thing: Storage
Seo says the big no-nos for storage are the attic, the basement, or the barn. “One simple thing you can do is minimize temperature and humidity fluctuations that can cause damage,” she says. The ideal environment is 65° F and 40 to 50 percent relative humidity. Seo suggests storing things somewhere in your living quarters where there are few fluctuations, such as under your bed.

If you really must use the basement, she says, plan for the possible flood or broken pipe. Keep things off the floor on plastic or metal-coated shelves. Don’t use uncoated metal (it may rust) or wood shelves. Wood is acidic and water can saturate it.

Put treasures in a box
An acid-free, lignin-free archival box, that is. It’ll keep out dust, pollutants, light, and UV rays, all of which can accelerate the aging process. Seo calls these boxes “micro-environments” that keep out the elements.

Buy acid-free and lignin-free paper supplies
Read labels. The challenge, Seo says, is sometimes a lack of labeling. For instance, stores often stock loose sheets of paper on shelves. Don’t be misled by the word “archival” on products, she adds. All paper supplies – boxes, folders, paper, mats, etc. – need to be acid-free and lignin-free, and even if non-paper supplies are labeled “archival” or “acid-free” it does not mean that they are appropriate to use on your collections.

Exhibit with care
If you want to display a family treasure, Seo says, follow these guidelines: Use a frame or a display case instead of unprotected on the wall or a shelf. Keep it out of direct sunlight and in a place that is temperature and humidity stable. Also, she adds, it’s best if framed items don’t touch the glass and all materials such as matting are acid-free and lignin-free.

Handle as little as possible
Sometimes it’s the oils on your hands that do the damage. Seo says before handling photos or documents, wash your hands to get oils and acids off. If you want to go the extra mile, white cotton gloves can be purchased at an archival supply store for a few bucks. “You’re better off if you make surrogate copies. And put photos in Mylar, then you’re not touching the actual object at all,” Seo says.

TIP: If you want to get really serious, "The Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collection" by Gregory J. Landrey is a book that covers everything about preservation for the layperson.

To read more about preserving family papers and for a list of archival suppliers, go to: www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/resources/leaflet/03-mar2000.html

Photographs: Dos and Don'ts

Photos run the gamut, from those old black and whites for which the negatives are long gone, to the digital photos which could be on CDs, still in the camera, or downloaded to a computer. Seo gives dos and don'ts regarding storage and preservation.

Do
Put photos in archival quality sleeves or in albums with acid-free paper.

Make prints! With digital, there’s always a chance you’ll lose your files.

Label them. Write on the album page, or put a piece of paper in a neighboring sleeve to jot down the who, what, when, where.

Don’t
Write on the photo or across the back.

Use sticky albums or non-archival plastic sleeves.

Spray or try to clean photos.

Use tape, sticky labels, glue, or stickers.

Buying guide

There are plenty of stores and online sites that sell archival goods. Janice Comer, division manager of Archival Products in Des Moines, gives a few tips on what to look for, starting with photo sleeves.
“Plastics are a mistake,” Comer says. “Very often, some of your discount store offerings are the lower grade of plastics.” She suggests the brand name Mylar, recently renamed Melinex, a polyester sleeve made by DuPont.

To be sure that paper materials are on acid- free paper, there are ph pens that can be used
to check them.

If papers are acidic, Comer says you may want to use a deacidification spray such as Archival Mist or Bookkeeper. She says because newspaper clippings are very acidic, they should be sprayed with one of these or a similar nonaqueous spray or photocopied onto permanent paper.

“Spray a mist over each side and it deacidifies the paper and impregnates a buffer for future acids from the environment,” Comer says. “When you spray it on it looks wet but it dries instantaneously.”

Another consideration is textile boxes for things such as baptismal clothing or quilts your grandmother made.
Check out Archival Products online at www.archival.com for folders, files, book covers, and boxes of all sizes for all different materials – even boxes for book collections.

Writing your memoirs (Return to top)

ISU English professor Fern Kupfer says there are many ways to document your memories in writing: journals, diaries, autobiographical portraits. But why should anyone do it?

“Everybody’s life is important, and everybody has a story to tell. When you write something, it makes your life concrete,” says Kupfer. “It also helps you understand some things about your life.”

Kupfer, who has written four books including a memoir, adds that not everyone is cut out to sit down and write a book. If you’re looking for a writing project that is substantive but won’t take years, she suggests composing a “talking album.” This is an exercise that she did with alumni at Alumni Days a few years ago.

Create a “talking album”

Select a group of family photographs, make high-quality copies or scans, and write a narrative to go with each photo.

Here are some tips Kupfer gives for writing:

• Find the oldest photo you have and make some conjectures about it. Remember, you’re not recreating history or doing a family geneology, so feel free to be creative.
• Use senses, smells, and tastes to recreate your childhood. Food is terrific to write about and it gives a very specific and immediate identification.
• Use a picture to share one anecdote. This can relate indirectly to the photograph. “The summer I was fourteen, my brother was inducted into the service. One day in July we…”
• Recreate place. Use well-chosen words to describe a place and open up a new world to your reader. Consider describing something in the picture that the reader can’t see.

If you do the layout yourself, you can print it out on nice paper and bind it at a copy center.

Inspiration for writing your own memoirs
A Q&A with George Christensen
Writing a memoir can provide a legacy for future generations. Memoirs run the gamut, from those on the best-seller list down to the unpublished in a three-ring binder. For most of us, it’s probably unrealistic to shoot for the best-seller list. Retired ISU vice president for academic affairs George Christensen had a particular audience in mind when he wrote his: his children and grandchildren. He set out, not to get published, but to write about his life for them. Family members, he said, were delighted when they read it, and Christensen ended up publishing the book locally.
We sat down with him and asked a few questions about the process.

Why is it important to write a memoir?

I think you owe it to your children to let them know more about you. There are many, many things about your life that you never share, despite the
stories. When you’re gone, no one else is going
to tell those stories. Also, I had an atypical life, having been orphaned at a young age, and I thought
it was important for my children to know more about that.

How long did it take to write?

Two years.

Do you think anyone can write a memoir?

Absolutely. You don’t need special training for this. You just have to start writing. It’s wise to have some form of organization so that it’s readable. I sat down and outlined what I wanted to cover; I had a plan.

What was your process like?

When I really started to dig in, it got exciting because I started to remember things that I wanted to share with the family. I’d be having breakfast and I’d remember something and I’d run and jot it down.

You did it for your children, but what else was important?

It was important for me to be able to share not only the history, but my thoughts relative to things in history, in my career, my associations with
colleagues, and to share my impres-sions of people.

You self-published. What are the benefits?

It turned out to be better because I could include photographs and it was much easier getting copies to people. I know a lot of people use binders and don’t go further, but I wanted something that was more finished.

Have you shared the book beyond your family?

I have it now for sale at Borders bookstore in Ames and also at the Octagon Shop in Ames. I had not intended to do this, but enough people encouraged me, so that’s what I’m doing. I did give copies to the ISU library and to the Alumni Association because I write quite a bit about my career.

TIP: Consider self-publishing.
George Christensen self-published his memoir at Sigler Printing and Publishing in Ames. Self-publishing means you are the author and marketer, and that you also provide financing. Prices vary greatly, depending on number of pages, size of finished book, type of binding, number of photos, quality of paper, design, etc. If you do the layout yourself, that will keep your cost down. Before you start writing, call a printer to get tips on formatting and prep work to save time and money, or work with a professional designer in your area.

Memory books: A slice of history (Return to top)

What did scrapbooks look like a hundred years ago? Back then, Iowa Staters took the time to put together what they called memory books. There was the usual memorabilia: playbills, game stubs, newspaper clippings, postcards. But the black and white photos really give you an insight into the era. In one early 20th century memory book, women are wearing dresses to play basketball and men are sporting high-cropped haircuts.

Many memory books took on a real three-dimensional appeal, with things like locks of hair and squished pom-poms. Dance cards with tiny pencils on silk strings were typical scrapbook items. Women wore the cards around their wrists to record who they danced with.

“It’s really the glimpse into the students’ lives that makes the memory books so interesting. You can see what the students thought was important at the time,” says Michele Christian, records analyst in the Special Collections Department at the ISU Library. She added that the scrapbooks include students’ inside jokes and their own language.

That they do. One gentleman in his 1915 scrapbook recorded taking part in “hoogy poogy.” (A Google search did not uncover the meaning of this word.)
The most unusual memory book Christian has come across had a page with four shell cases of ammunition arranged around a beanie. Also on the page were military stripes that would have been sewn onto a uniform – military training was mandatory for all male students at Iowa State until 1962. (Special Collections did have someone from military science come over to make sure the ammunition was inactive!)

Though scrapbooking today is a hobby predominantly practiced by women, the mostly pre-1960s memory books in the University Archives indicate that men and women both took part in the craft. Most have been donated to the Iowa State collection by alumni and their families. If you come across an old Iowa State memory book and want to donate it to the collection, contact Special Collections at 515-294-6672.

TIP: Do you have an old scrapbook you want to preserve?
Put it in an archival storage box, stored spine down or flat, or put it on open bookshelves between books of similar size to prevent warping. If the scrapbook is falling apart, tie it up package-style with flat cotton tape, putting the bow at the edge, not on the cover. Leave it as is, rather than trying to improve its construction.

Scrapbooking today: A social way to preserve memories (Return to top)

At 11 o'clock on a Friday night, Memory Bound, a scrapbook store in Ankeny, Iowa, is buzzing with activity. There are 28 people at tables in the back, with photos and pages splayed out, gluing, cutting, and designing. In the aisles, people are shopping, browsing through hundreds of paper selections and other supplies.

It’s a Midnight Crop ’n’ Shop, and according to Memory Bound co-owner Kellie Gould (’81 textiles and clothing), it’s a slow night. A “crop” is the modern-day version of old quilting bees: People gather, bring their supplies and pictures, and sit around working on their scrapbook pages while they chat.

The scrapbooking craze has really grown over the last decade. There are 32 million scrapbookers; a quarter of U.S. households participate in the hobby, and it’s a $2.5 billion business according to a 2004 “Scrapbooking in America”™ survey done by Creating Keepsakes magazine. People are actually adding rooms onto their houses for the hobby.

Gould and Dawn Johnson (’83 agricultural business) saw the enthusiasm when they started an album imprinting business out of Johnson’s basement in 2000. (Album imprinting is embossing or engraving personalized information on the outside of a scrapbook or photo album.) To help build their business, the two held a crop at a local middle school. They expected 50 people. They were a little surprised when 500 showed up. At their second crop, 1,000 people came. Almost 3,000 people came to the last one they held.
In 2001, they opened Memory Bound with 2,800 square feet and six staff. They later expanded to 4,200 square feet, and today they have 25 employees. Gould estimates that their inventory has quadrupled.
“We call ourselves Iowa’s Scrapbook Superstore because we have people from Arizona, Minnesota, and Michigan stopping in,” said Johnson. “We had one carload going from Minnesota to Arizona, stopping at every scrapbooking store along the way.”
Maybe stronger than the shopping aspect of scrapbooking, however, is the social aspect of it. Johnson and Gould have enjoyed watching friendships forge and say that mothers and daughters spend time together they otherwise wouldn’t have.

Johnson added, “Even if you’re not an artsy-
craftsy person, you still enjoy it because there’s
no right or wrong way. As you’re scrapbooking, what you’re really doing is reliving all your memories.”

Try it.
Memory Bound has free beginners classes. You don’t have to bring a thing; supplies, adhesives, trimmers, and other tools are all supplied. You’ll learn about why you should preserve your memories, how to select colors, and how to choose the best photos as you complete a two-page spread. Go to www.memorybound.com for info on classes and more. Or look for classes in your own area.

Notes from the ‘crop’
Laura Rinehart of Ankeny is putting together a scrapbook that documents her son’s career in the Marines. On trips to Iraq and with work on the Katrina aftermath, he took disposable cameras and sent home snapshots with descriptions. “This will be a great memory for him to have,” said Rinehart. “There will be some journaling and I hope that he thinks of me when he sees my handwriting.”

Kathy Turk of Polk City is designing small, nearly identical scrapbooks for her mother and mother-in-law, who grew up together. Turk and family members dug up old black and whites from 1955, the year they graduated high school, and made high quality copies. She’ll present them at her mom’s 75th birthday.

Julie Danenhauer (’02 transportation and logistics) is creating a scrapbook of her family’s Disney trip. The book is for Danenhauer’s grandparents, who were also on the trip. She started scrapbooking because she wanted to create a baby book that was more special than filling in the blanks of a pre-made book.

About the Writer | Samantha Beres is a freelance writer from Ames.