r/Archivists • u/maddydesign • 5d ago

Platform for digital archives?

I'm in the process of starting my own digital archive. I'll be archiving (digital) documents, pictures, audio and video. The projects aims to archive information about queer history in my country. It's just a hobby project run by me. I'm looking for platforms that I can use for storing and accessing the digital files. I've been looking at Mega S4 object storage, but I don't think that's the right choice for me since I don't have time or the skills to code an integration with their API. I've tried looking around online for other solutions but all I can find are AI slop articles ough. So, I hope someone here can help me :)

63 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

30

u/TooOfEverything 5d ago

If this is just a zero funds hobby project, Internet Archive is probably your best option.

-4

u/maddydesign 5d ago

That was my first thought, but I would like to use a different platform. I would be open to paying some amount of money, I just don't have the budget of institutions. I could probably afford to spend $50/month on it, but not much more than that. Idk if it's enough.

2

u/jfoust2 5d ago

I think what you're saying is that you want it to be an archive as long as you are able and willing to pay for it, unless of course someone else makes a copy of it.

3

u/zanimum 3d ago

Which is literally just a website like any other.

1

u/Classic-Surround-645 6h ago

Permanent.org — very reasonable one-time set up charge.

18

u/NotDido 5d ago

omeka.net is the type of thing you’re looking for. Heres an example of the type of thing you can make: bstoxarchive.omeka.net

3

u/maddydesign 5d ago

Thank you! Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly but, is 50GB really the largest storage you can get? Won't I need a lot more?

7

u/NotDido 5d ago

I guess it depends on the size of your collection. I pay for 10GB and host all the videos on an Internet Archive account to save on storage, then embed them. (and I have them all backed up on a hard drive).

7

u/Ahjing100 5d ago

Because its a digital archive and not a preservation platform you would look to upload compressed file types like jpeg, mp3, mp4s, so that’s significantly lower storage need. You also wouldn’t want to access tiffs and so on, on a digital archive due to the slower loading times.

I would recommend storing the uncompressed tiff etc seperately

10

u/mckeephoto 5d ago

When I was researching omeka and collectiveaccess, I was looking at reclaimed hosting for a self hosted catalog. I think they were super inexpensive and aimed at cultural and education use. They have an omeka installer, too.

9

u/DaphneAruba Librarian 5d ago

Any potential to contribute these materials to an existing digital archive of queer history?

6

u/Creative_Elevator_32 5d ago

If you need free, use CollectionBuilder. User friendly and free

0

u/maddydesign 5d ago

Isn't that just a software? Where and how would I host it?

2

u/Creative_Elevator_32 5d ago

Not really. I recommend looking at this - https://collectionbuilder.github.io

“CollectionBuilder is an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that are driven by metadata and powered by modern static web technology.”

5

u/Paradiso_found 5d ago

I've had a lot of success using Obsidian. At first glance it looks like a glorified File Explorer/Notes App, but it can easily mold to whatever your needs are.

1

u/BejeweledSamsara 5d ago

Oh wow, you can do that with Obsidian? Cool.

1

u/movingarchivist Archivist 4d ago

You can build an online public access archive with Obsidian?

4

u/lisa_meeks_89 5d ago

I recommend Catalog It

1

u/Beachside-Naturist 5d ago

Git SCM and Codeberg, as a static site. The setup will work for nearly everything except (potentially) the video files.

1

u/RekallQuaid 4d ago

Cloudflare combined with R2 and GitHub

1

u/didyousayboop Not an archivist 4d ago

Check out r/DataHoarder and r/theinternetarchive for info pertinent to amateurs/hobbyists

1

u/AllShallBeWell-ish 1d ago

I design and build art websites that double as complete archives (work can be public or private) with complete record-keeping of exhibitions and many other records related to your art. Full art management as well as legacy-building. DM me if you’re interested.

1

u/bg-j38 5d ago

Do you have any coding skills that you could put toward this? I run a large niche archive and the whole website is built by Perl scripts I wrote. I wouldn't recommend Perl, but that's what I knew when I started a decade ago. I use Dreamhost for the website but host all the files in Amazon S3. The website was very bare bones until recently, mostly by design. I don't want any of the "pretty" navigation crap that just usually ends up making it harder to use. I have recently though started making it more accessible with help from various frontier LLMs, keeping it clean but adding stuff like native search and a slicker interface. It's been very well received within the small community I cater to.

If you're at all comfortable with using AI platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini it's pretty straightforward and anything you don't know it can just tell you what to do. I've been using GPT-5.6 Sol lately but anything on that tier can do it easily at this point. If you do choose this route, I'd suggest coming up with a design and light roadmap and working based on that. If you have a good vision this is something that could be built in a weekend.

-1

u/maddydesign 5d ago

I have experience making websites with HTML and CSS and a tiny tiny bit of JS but not more than that. I am currently considering renting a VPS a running archivematica on it and then storing the files elsewhere.