Curating Your Box of Chaos: Digitizing Collections of SWVA Community History

Abstract

Whether it’s your grandmother’s attic or the archival storage room of your favorite historical society, we’ve all encountered that “box of chaos” with documents, photos, and that one floppy disk no one can open. As time passes, though, the risk of losing material to degradation, obsolescence, and institutional memory increases.

The Greater Southwest Virginia Digital Collective is a new community-owned, community-designed collaboration between regional cultural heritage organizations and Virginia Tech University Libraries to provide resources for organizing, digitizing, and preserving the SWVA historical record. Join our Roundtable to learn about GSDC, our resources, and ways to collaborate to preserve your box of chaos.