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
  • Photographs / negatives / slides
  • Paper-based documents

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 - By Appointment

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). Please check the Events Calendar for 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