The Weekly Wrap: July 12, 2026

Over the past few years, I've discovered how much I love helping people dig into their personal archives. Every person is the archivist of their own life. I've greatly enjoyed helping people learn how to tell, save, and share those stories. On Friday, I hosted a webinar in our personal archiving series on one of the trickiest parts of that work: knowing what to keep.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Before you start, do some prep work
  • Make a list or spreadsheet of what you have
  • Identify other stakeholders - family members, friends, local libraries, historical societies
  • Write down your goals and any constraints (time, space, money) to keep you focused
• Ask some key questions about each item
  • Is it irreplaceable?
  • Does it tell a story?
  • Is it in usable condition?
  • Who would care about it?
  • What would it take to preserve it?
• Some things are almost always worth keeping
  • Vital records - if you need it to prove identity, ownership, or connection, keep it
  • One-of-a-kind photographs of people or places that no longer exist
  • Personal correspondence documenting significant relationships or events
• Some things are often safe to let go
  • Duplicates (You don't need every photo from every vacation)
  • Items kept out of obligation rather than genuine value
  • Digital files with no context or identifying information (Random screenshots, anyone?)
• For the maybes...
  • It's okay to keep things for now and decide later
  • Ask yourself: am I keeping the object or the memory? A photo or scan can preserve the memory without keeping the item
  • Ask others - sometimes you need permission to let something go or find a reason to keep it
• Prioritize what's at risk
  • Old photos, obsolete media, and fragile materials should move to the top of your list
  • Your phone camera is a perfectly good digitization tool
  • Store physical items in cool, dry, dark conditions using acid-free materials
• Bonus tips to make the work easier
  • Record yourself talking through what you find - your voice is part of the archive
  • Download your social media content before platforms change or disappear
  • Bring in a family member - the conversations are as valuable as what you find
  • Start with one box, one folder, one album and go from there

Curious enough to learn more? The recording is available on my library's YouTube page. I hope it helps you take one step toward preserving your own story.

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• Punctuation matters. [Experimental Living - reader submission]
• Is potato salad quintessentially American? [NYT]
• There is irony in this long read about people not reading. [The Atlantic - gift link]
• What we call women when they refuse to submit. [Men Yell at Me]
• Old tech is making a comeback. [The Atlantic - gift link]
• Want to fix the literacy and reading crisis? Hire more school librarians. [The AI School Librarians]

• The Onion is doing a good thing for the right reasons. [The Daily]
• When life becomes a scoreboard. [99% Invisible]
• Catch a falling satellite? [Short Wave]
• Does shopping in bulk save you money? [Booming]
• When running is not a side quest. [Atlas Obscura]

• We are all Tour de France all the time. The race is in the morning and early afternoon, but we watch the replay at the end of the day. If you told me two years ago I'd be this into cycling, I would have laughed at you. While most of the strategy still goes over my head, watching each stage is fascinating. Also, I know he won't podium, but I am rooting for Quinn Simmons. Stache power! [Peacock]

• For our meatless Monday pick, I went with fancy tomato sandwiches. (I love a no cook dish on hot weather days!) The kiddo found the baguette we used a bit chewy and needed to deconstruct hers a bit. Don't skip the crispy fried onions. They are a critical part of the flavor. I do think, however, that you could make chive mayo instead of chive butter if you want a creamier spread. I served these with a side of shoestring fries. [Real Simple]
• I've been trying to make at least two of our meals vegetarian each week. For our second vegetarian meal, I stirred together cheesy rigatoni skillet with mushrooms and spinach. This turned into a sort of use it up dish as I tossed in a diced up tomato we had and sorta winged it with the cheese. Still tasty. [Budget Bytes]
• I used the sous vide to help me make barbecue chicken quesadillas. It's so much easier to cook the chicken this way. Also, I stirred some of the BBQ sauce into sour cream to make a dipping sauce. It was pretty good but I wanted something with a bit more acid. [WaPo - may be paywalled]