TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Everyone has that old box of photos or VHS tapes sitting in their closet collecting dust. At the University of Arizona's Wildcats Memory Lab, you can digitize them, and when you’re all done, you have them on a USB drive for easy access.
U of A opened the lab inside the Main Library, and its purpose is to help people preserve old media in a digital format. The lab is led by Stacey Erdman, the digital preservation librarian at the U of A. Erdman says the Wildcats Memory Lab is one of the few public memory labs in the country at the university level.
Erdman says reservations keep stacking up.
“You know, it’s been very heartwarming to me to sit down with people when they come in and they have like these precious things and they tell me, 'oh this video is of my friend who passed five years ago and I’m digitizing this to give to his wife and family'," Erdman said.
The lab is supported by a $43,240 grant from Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Erdman’s goal was to make the lab a beginner-friendly, do-it-yourself space for the public. Three workstations are available for scanning, audio and video conversions. So, you can bring your cassettes, floppy disks, vinyl records and more.
“A lot of this equipment, it’s kind of a race against time to be able to even transfer this content off of these old formats," Erdman said.
Erdman says she often sees how devastating it is for some people to lose old photos and videos for good.
“If you don’t take the time to transfer those to a digital format, then you’re never gonna know what you have or what you’re losing," said Erdman.
You can make a request online to use the memory lab here. It is located inside the U of A's Main Library at 1510 E. University Blvd.
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Jacqueline Aguilar is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born and raised in Yuma, AZ., she is no stranger to the unforgiving Arizona heat. Now this U of A wildcat is excited to be back in Tucson and is looking forward to involving herself in the community. Share your story ideas with Jacqueline by emailing jacqueline.aguilar@kgun9.com or connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
