Do you know exactly what is in your family archive, and where to find it? As a collection of photos, documents, letters, and heirlooms grows, keeping track of it all in your head, or on scattered scraps of paper, quietly stops working.
Join Mark Thompson for a practical Excel talk built for the family archivist. You’ll learn how to build a simple, searchable catalog of your collection: an inventory that records what each item is, who and what it shows, when and where it came from, and where it lives now, whether that is a box in the closet or a folder on your computer. Mark will show you how to track your digitization progress, note condition and provenance, and use Excel’s sorting and filtering to find any item in seconds and to spot the gaps still waiting to be filled.
You’ll leave with a practical system for cataloging your family archive, so nothing gets lost, forgotten, or accidentally thrown away, and so whoever inherits your collection one day knows exactly what they have.
For Event Organizers
The details below are provided to help you plan your event; they are not part of the talk description above.
- Length: 60 to 90 minutes as a lecture, or about 2 hours as a hands-on workshop
- Formats: Virtual or in-person, as a lecture (no laptop needed) or a hands-on workshop (each attendee needs a laptop with Excel)
- Audience: Beginner to intermediate; basic spreadsheet familiarity is helpful, no cataloging experience required
Ready to bring this talk to your group? Click Check Availability below and tell me a little about your event.