Library plan: the decisions and the description

One page for the decisions that hold a library together: where the master library is, its quality setting, the folder pattern, where captions live, what counts as a keeper and how many copies exist. Printed, it is the written description of your library that the Library of Congress asks for.

Essential on a first pass for its first three lines: where the master library is, its quality setting and the phone's space-saving setting. The other lines fill in as you work through the chapters, and a reader who leaves them blank loses only the written description. Printed, the page is the description of your library that the Library of Congress asks families to keep with the files. Print this as the description of your library: use the Print button under the sheet, and keep a copy with the drive and one with your important papers.

The plan

Fill each line in your own words. Write "to decide" where you have not decided; a blank line reads as forgotten.

How to use this sheet

• One line per decision. Each line is a decision a chapter asks for: the master in One home for your photos, the folders in Folders and file names, the export test in Dates, captions and people, the keeper sentence in Choosing what to keep, the copies in Backups.
• Write what you saw, not what the app promises. For the quality setting, write the words on your own screen and the date you looked.
• "To decide" beats a blank. A blank line reads as forgotten to whoever opens this next.
• The description is for someone else. Two or three sentences a relative could follow: where the folders are, how they are named, where the captions live.