What if I want to donate to the SEADA?

The SEADA welcomes donations from all community members; if we had all the time and money in the world, we would take everything. But the SEADA team is still very small, so we must limit donations for now. These guidelines listed below are provided for community members and organizations interested becoming part of the SEADA.

If you need translation or technical assistance, please contact us by email at: seada@uml.edu or by phone: 978-364-0398 (please leave a message!). We have limited resources, but we will try to find a way!

Make a Donation to SEADA

  • How To Donate Digital Items

    DIGITAL FORMATS: We will accept any file format for photographs, videos, and audio from your digital cameras and/or cell phones.

    • Please send us your original unmanipulated born-digital files.

    Please FIRST do the following:

    1. Choose your five “best” items – photographs, documents, videos, anything.
      • You define what is “best” -- the most important to you and your family, or most the most beautiful, or the most significant for history and/or the community.
    2. Tell us about each item – the WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, WHY – so people can understand what it is and its importance. Some things to include:
      • WHO
        • Who’s in the photo or video? Who took it?
        • If it’s a letter, who wrote it and to whom was it sent?
        • Is it from an organization or group? Can you tell us about the group?
      • WHEN
        • This can include dates as well as the significance of the event -- is it someone’s birthday? A holiday or festival?
        • If it’s something that was lost and recently found, what was the original date of the document, and when/how was it relocated?
        • What is the history of the item? (e.g. was it stored in a basement/attic for many years, or was it created two weeks ago?)
      • WHERE
        • This can include things like city, state, and country, but also things like why the place is important (e.g. family home, refugee camp, temple)
      • WHAT
        • What is happening or being discussed in the materials? In photos and videos, what is happening? If it’s a letter or other document, what is being discussed?
      • WHY
        • Most importantly, why is this significant / important? (Again, you define what that means – is it the first graduation your family attended? Your first family reunion? Your first experience of snow?)
    3. Please email your original, unedited digital files to: seada@uml.edu
      • If the files are too big to attach to the email, we can find a different way of transferring the files – please just contact us by email at: seada@uml.edu or call us at 978-934-4408 (please leave a message).
      • If you have additional materials that may be relevant for SEADA, please make a note in your email or phone message.

    ONCE YOU SUBMIT:

    1. Once you submit your materials, we will immediately acknowledge that we’ve received them.
    2. We will assess the materials (format, content to make sure they’re appropriate for the SEADA collections. Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible, while making sure that we give each item the care it deserves.
    3. We will contact you with any questions or requests for more information.
      • We will try to respond as soon as possible, but workloads vary, so it may take a couple weeks or even a month or two. We will do our best!
    4. To finalize the donation, we will ask you to sign a Deed of Gift, an official document that gives SEADA permission to share your materials on the Southeast Asian Digital Archive.

  • How to Donate Physical Items

    SEADA has very limited archival storage space (almost none), which is why we have chosen to be a digital archive.

    If you have physical materials – photographs, documents, letters, etc. – related to Southeast Asian American communities in the Lowell region that you think may be important, please contact us to discuss a possible donation by email: seada@uml.edu or call: 978-934-4408 (please leave a message).

    With physical materials, our first priority are historically/culturally significant items that are in danger of being damaged or thrown away.
    So if you know of any materials important to Southeast Asian American communities in the Lowell region, please contact us by email at seada@uml.edu or call: 978-934-4408 (leave a message).

  • How to Donate Digital Copies (But Keep the Original Copies)

    If you would like to share your photos, documents, and other materials with the SEADA while keeping the originals, we can arrange this in several ways.

    Please contact us by email at: seada@uml.edu or call 978-934-4408 (please leave a message).

  • How to Donate Oral Histories

    We are still working on these policies. Please check back soon for more information!

    Contact us for more information.