Personal Archiving Lab

one of the Personal Archiving Lab carts with an assortment of tools on it

The Personal Archiving Lab at the Central Library is a collection of equipment that can be used to digitize at-risk analog materials. The Lab supports the following
formats:

  • VHS tapes
  • VHS-C tapes
  • DVDs (not BluRay)
  • Audio cassettes
  • MiniDV tapes
  • Hi-8 tapes (we cannot digitize Hi-8 tapes at this time),
  • Photographs / negatives / slides
  • Paper-based documents

There is also a mobile version - the Mini Archiving Lab - that may be hosted at one neighborhood library for up to 2 months. This set of equipment supports...

  • VHS tapes
  • Audio cassettes
  • Photographs / negatives / slides
  • Paper-based documents

Neither set of equipment supports 8 or 16mm reel-to-reel film or audio tape. Patrons who use the lab must bring some form of external storage — a portable hard drive, or a thumb drive — on which digital files can be stored.

Personal Archiving Lab Tutorials

First-time users will need to attend a one-time Personal Archiving Lab Tutorial. Drop-In Tutorials are scheduled on (most) Mondays, 2-4pm at the Central Library (Rm. 209). The instructor may not be able to accommodate those who arrive after 3:40pm.

The Mini Archiving Lab is not available at this time.

Please check our calendar or the Digitize Your Memories page for all Drop-In Tutorial dates.

For inquiries about the Personal Archiving Lab or tutorials please contact reference@madisonpubliclibrary.org.

This resource is available at:

Central Library