Library News

Family memories come in all shapes and sizes—certificates, birthday cards, photo albums, home movies and more. Many of these important treasures are at risk as they age because the materials they are stored on degrade over time. Tapes become brittle and break. Photographs fade. Documents can suffer water or pest damage. Even born-digital records kept on CDs and DVDs are vulnerable because the physical plastic discs themselves can break down. Imagine the heartbreak of pulling out your favorite family memories to show your children or grandchildren, only to find them damaged or lost entirely.

To combat this problem, Sarasota County Libraries and Historical Resources has introduced the Memory Lab, a do-it-yourself digitization station designed to convert invaluable family records into digital files. These digital files can then be stored on stable modern devices or a cloud storage solution of your choice, which makes them much easier to preserve and share with family and friends.

The Memory Lab is located at the Sarasota County History Center in the Osprey Library (337 N Tamiami Trail, Osprey, Florida, 34229). To request an appointment to use the lab, visit SarasotaCountyLibraries.org and select "Memory Lab" from the Services menu. This page explains which older formats the Memory Lab is equipped to digitize, and an online form is available for requesting your appointment. A member of the History Center staff will contact you to confirm your appointment. When you arrive at the History Center, a staff member will train you to use the equipment you will need for your project, and step-by-step illustrated instructions are also provided for your convenience. When you are finished, you may download your digital files to your own external hard drive or thumb drive, or you may use a cloud-based storage service like Dropbox or Google Drive to archive the material you have digitized. There is no charge for using the Memory Lab—it is one of the many valuable public services offered by Sarasota County Libraries and Historical Resources.

The Memory Lab is open to all adults (18+), as well as younger patrons accompanied by an adult. Each appointment is two hours long, and you may schedule up to two appointments each calendar week.

So what are you waiting for? Those tapes and photos and floppy disks aren't getting any younger—make an appointment to visit the Memory Lab and safeguard your family treasures today!