Memory Lab at Richmond Public Library can help preserve documents, old photos, and memories

Do you have family memories stored on some kind of old media like VHS or old print photos that you’d like to make digital? The new Memory Lab at RPL’s Main Library can help you!

The Memory Lab offers equipment for digitizing photographs, paper documents, books, slides, film, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records, and more. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, you can schedule one-on-one training with the very helpful and friendly library staff.

Besides digitizing materials, the staff at the Memory Lab has the knowledge and equipment to help conduct oral histories, and teach methods for archiving and preservation for personal, family and organizational materials. You can also record and edit projects such as music, spoken word, podcasts, oral histories, videos, or other types of recordings.

The Memory Lab is funded by a $900,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation as part of the national Memory Lab Network. The Memory Lab at Richmond Public Library is the only such lab in Central Virginia. The five-year grant will fund a state-of-the-art Memory Lab with equipment that enables all Richmond individuals and communities to preserve fragile documents, old photos, and memories by digitizing them for long term safety, preservation, and sharing.