Blogging through the Alphabet ~ A is for Archive

 
I felt the need for something new on my blog so I am going to join the blogging through the alphabet link-up each week. You can click on the button above to check out the rules and join in if you would like.

A is for Archive. That is the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about what A word to write about. According to Dictionary.com this is the meaning of archive:

ar·chive - noun 

1. Usually, archives. documents or records relating to the activities, business dealings, etc., of a person, family, corporation, association, community, or nation.
2. archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.  
3. any extensive record or collection of data
4. Digital Technology.  
1. a long-term storage device, as a disk or magnetic tape, or a computer directory or folder that contains copies of files for backup or future reference.
2. a collection of digital data stored in this way.
3.  a computer file containing one or more compressed files.
4.  a collection of information permanently stored on the Internet.

I have and use many archives.

I love to use the website Internet Archive @ http://archive.org/
I have downloaded many, many good old books from there.
Henty books, The Story of Liberty and other books by Coffin, Charles Carleton (love his writing); Fifty Famous Stories Retold by Baldwin, James, and many, many more. Before I buy an old book I check the Internet archive. Sometimes I want the book in print to hold in my hand, and buy it later, but it is good to read the old books first for free then decide if I want to buy later. Also, in times like this when money is tight, it is a great help to have the free books to use.

I also use Wikimedia Commons. I especially use it for Art. I like to gather our art prints from here. The link I gave you go's to the Monet page. I sometimes print the thumbnails for use in our labooks or on notebooking pages.

There are a lot of other sites on the Internet that have archives. I do not have the time to list all the ones I have used. On to other archives...

 I love Book Collector. You will find it @ Collectorz.com. It is expensive but I have tried some of the free database collection software products out there and there is no comparison. I love logging in my books and have 1273 books logged in so far. I like knowing what books we own and where they are so that I can find them when needed. It is especially important now that I have a number of books in tubs in the basement because they will not all fit on our shelves. I know we have around 4,000 books so I have a bunch to still log in.

I also have an external drive. I have a LOT of things for homeschooling archived on there. I have family photos saved there. If there was a fire in our home after my hubby and kids my external drive would be the next thing I would want safe. I need to work on backing up some stuff on there. I should put that on my goal list next week.

I use Calibre too. I have a lot of e-books loaded in there. Especially the books from http://yesterdaysclassics.com/ It is a great way to keep track of your e-books and makes it easy to find the book you are looking for because you can search different categories.


I also have the Kindle app on my computer and on the Android add-on which is on my Nook. There are so many free books on Kindle: Christian books, kids books, cook books, even non-fiction that I can use in our homeschool. Lots and lots of books, I love reading.

Another archive type of system I like is the library. In the olden days there was the card file... now things are so easy with online access to thousands of books, dvd's, cd's, and more in the library system across the whole state of Delaware which I have access to. I can order them online and some really nice person will transport them 2 hours (the farthest library away from us) or less and bring the books (or whatever I order) to a library less than 5 minutes from my house. Saves on gas. Saves us money. I have used the library so much over the 22 years I have been homeschooling that I am known by many librarians in a few of the libraries in our local area. I took out so many books one time that they had my books on a rolling cart all of their own.

I have a blog. Moments in the years of our life are recorded here. I can look back, my kids and grandkids can look back. Many things are archived here. This post will now be a part of that. I love blogging. Sharing our day, sharing about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sharing about homeschooling, sharing photos. It is a great outlet for me.

Do you have any collections? are they archived? are they saved and protected? 
Do you use any archived collections?
What person, place or thing would you blog about for the letter A??


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