Did you realize that you have a UNIQUE, never shared before collection of archival materials in your house right now? Your family photos!

Your research can come alive with images, but finding, scanning, and preserving them can be a daunting prospect. In this talk, we’ll look at all three—from the perspective of a designer, photographer, researcher, and archivist (in training). Michelle D. Novak will give us an introduction on how to best scan the images you have, ways to find images in collections to supplement your research, new online resources to help identify those mystery people, and share some tips for protecting the photos and artifacts for future generations. (P.S., It’s her favorite talk and a hot-topic!)

Michelle D. Novak is a brand designer at [MND] (mnd.nyc) which serves finserv, education, and technology clients; genealogist; and teacher. She is a Master of Information student (formerly, MLIS) at Rutgers University in archives and digitization, holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and certificates from Boston University, Gen-Fed, and the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh, among others. Novak is Trustee and Webmaster for the Genealogical Society of Bergen County (GSBC), New Jersey, and a former Trustee of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey (GSNJ). She also serves as Project Administrator for the GSNJ-NJSA New Jersey Early Land Records Project (a joint project between the Genealogical Society of New Jersey and the New Jersey State Archives); Editor of the GSBC’s national award-winning newsletter, The Archivist; and is involved with numerous transcription, indexing, publicity, and digitization projects.

Free—all are welcome. Free parking in the Statehouse Garage. Please RSVP (for seating planning) at https://www.njstatelib.org/event/picturing-your-research/. 

And, while in Trenton, explore the wonderful genealogical collection at the New Jersey State Library (did you know that the NJSL has a dedicated and Genealogical Librarian?) or visit the New Jersey State Archives, just across the plaza.

Braen family July 4th (no year, c1925) family picnic, location unknown. Photographer possibly Arthur Tuschmann, Jr. (d 1948). This photo is used in this talk, and others, to demonstrate photo dating and copyright, as this image would have come out of copyright protection only in 2018! (Novak is still working to identify people in the image.) Collection of Michelle D. Novak.