Frequently Asked Questions

Contributing to the Project

What kinds of items can I contribute?

On our Contribute an Item page, you can upload stories, images, and short audio-visual recordings about your experience of Hurricane Harvey or its aftermath.

Examples of items that have already been contributed include videos and photographs of damage, rescue, and recovery; screenshots from phones or other devices; personal narratives; collections of social media posts; and even some artworks and poems.

Anything related to your memories of Hurricane Harvey is relevant to the Project. If you have something that you are not sure about uploading, please contact us.

Why should I contribute an item?

By contributing your memories, you can ensure that the Harvey Memories Project represents the full range of perspectives on Hurricane Harvey.

Our goal is to empower you to record your own experiences in your own ways. We hope that these records can also contribute to larger community efforts to recover and learn from this historic disaster.

Putting your personal item in the Harvey Memories Project will also ensure that it becomes part of the public historical record, so that it can be preserved for future generations. Our Team includes professional librarians who will work to protect the survival and accessibility of this archive over the long term.

Is there a file size limit?

The Contribution form only allows files up to 20MB. If you have a file that is larger and cannot be made smaller, such as an audio or video file, please Contact Us for guidance on how to proceed.

Can I contribute items anonymously?

Yes. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, even to the administrators of the Harvey Memories Project, do not provide your name or email address anywhere on the Contribution form. If you wish to create a user account with your email address, but do not want your name to appear in public, simply leave your name off the form. We will never share your email address publicly.

Please be aware that if a problem arises with a completely anonymous submission, such as a technical error or a take-down request from a third party, we will not be able to contact you to help resolve the issue. In that case, HMP will make a decision on how to handle it without your advisement.

If you are contributing photos or videos, please be aware that digital files sometimes contain geolocation metadata and other potentially identifying information about you. If you are concerned about making such information public, we highly suggest using a tool such as View Exif to check for and remove geolocation and other private information from the item before uploading it.

Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information about Contributing.

What if the item I want to contribute is something I already posted somewhere else on the web?

You may have stories or images about Hurricane Harvey that you have already published somewhere else, for example on a blog or in a social media post. There are several ways to get these items into the Harvey Memories Project so that they can be shared and preserved.

If the item you want to contribute is an image or audio-visual recording,the best thing to do is to download it to your computer and then upload it using our Contribute an Item form for images. When you describe the item on the form, you can indicate where you originally published it.

If the item you want to contribute is primarily text (for example, an essay, an email, or a series of social media posts), we recommend that you choose one or all of the following options:

Option A: copy and paste the text directly into our Contribute an Item form for stories, indicating there where the text originally appeared
Option B: copy and paste the text into a document and then upload that file using our Contribute an Item form for stories (example)
Option C: print the text as a PDF, and then upload that file using our story form

If the item is a mixture of images and text from somewhere on the web (for example, a tweet, Facebook update, or a blog post with images), consider the following methods to contribute it to the Harvey Memories Project:

Option A: take a screenshot and upload the picture as an image (example)
Option B: print the webpage as a PDF, and then upload that file as a story in our Contribute an Item form for stories
Option C: copy and paste the text as a Story in our Contribute an Item form, while also using the optional upload button for stories to attach any images to the story as illustrations (example)

For more specific advice about how to contribute Facebook posts, see this page.

If you have any trouble, please contact us.

What is the purpose of the post-submission survey?

After you submit an item through our Contribution form, you will see a link to a post-submission questionnaire. This survey is optional and anonymous and is used only to gather demographic information about who is contributing to the collection. The information provided on this questionnaire will not be linked in any way to the items you contribute.

How will my email address be used?

Providing your email address to us when you contribute is completely optional. If you do choose to provide it, your email will never be shared with or sold to any third party, and it will not be made public on our website.

The HMP will only use your email to contact you in the event that one of your contributions has been requested to be taken down, or if there is some other issue with your contribution. Submitting your email address also enables you to create a Guest User account that you can use to view all of your contributed items and "unpublish" any items that you no longer want to appear on this website.

What rights do I retain over items I contribute?

As a contributor, you retain the copyright to any item that you upload, but by submitting items to the Harvey Memories Project, you grant the Project a non-exclusive license to publish your items on our website and on the website of our partner, the Houston Flood Museum.

Our Contribution form also makes it easy for you to apply a Creative Commons license to your contribution. Depending on the preferences you indicate on the form, the license grants other permissions for the use or reuse of your items.

More information about the rights you grant to the Harvey Memories Project by contributing is available in our Terms and Conditions.

Why hasn't my item appeared?

All contributed items are reviewed by our team before publication to prevent spam and objectionable content from appearing on our site. The length of time for review will depend on available resources, the number of items under review, and the nature of the contribution.

How do I reset my password?

If you need to reset your password, please visit https://harveymemories.org/users/forgot-password and enter the email address you used to create the account.

Why does my item contain metadata I did not provide?

The Harvey Memories Project makes every effort to preserve and respect user-submitted metadata for contributed items. However, for the sake of archival preservation and consistency across our site, our team does reserve the right to modify metadata. If you have provided an email address with your contribution, we will attempt to contact you before making such changes.

Using the Project

I see an item on the project that I think should be taken down. What should I do?

If you would like to request that we take down an item, please Contact Us. Provide a link to the item in the collection and the reason why you think it should be taken down. Our team will review your request and inform you of the outcome of our review.

Can I use or republish items from the Harvey Memories Project?

Creators of items in the Harvey Memories Project retain full copyright in their items. However, individual items include a "Rights" statement that may grant you a license to use or reuse the items with appropriate attribution.

Each item also has a suggested citation displayed on the page that offers recommendations about how to cite it. Please adhere to and respect the rights that creators have retained according to the rights statement attached to the item.

Where can I get assistance dealing with the effects of Hurricane Harvey?

As you share your experience with Hurricane Harvey or browse items on this site, you may feel painful emotions. Consider contacting the resources on our Resources page for assistance.