The Library Vault

I hadn’t seen the video of my wedding in nearly 30 years.

A friend recorded a VHS tape of my wedding as a gift. Then time moved on, video formats changed, my old DVD player died and, well, the video got shoved onto a shelf and forgotten.

And then Russell Library created a Digital Conversion Station. What is a Digital Conversion Station? To quote our website, “The Digitization Station is a place where you can bring the past to life. It’s a service that allows you to bring in home videos, photographs, and documents to digitize. You can digitize home videos, from VHS, 8mm, Super 8 and VHS-C by using our various converting devices. You can digitize photographs, film, documents using a cutting-edge flatbed scanner.”

The Station was made possible by our annual giving campaign. We asked folks to donate to the library so we could build a state-of-the-art conversion center. Donations poured in from a generous community (thank you, Middletown!) and we bought the equipment.

Staff training soon followed. Our tech department asked us to bring in things we would like to digitize so we could learn how to use the equipment. I dug out my old wedding video and showed up for my training appointment.

Let me say up front that it was easy. Once I had the basic training, I was able to convert my precious video into a digital file that I simply emailed to myself.

But learning how to use the equipment was the least of it. I was unprepared for how seeing that video for the first time in decades would affect me. Grandparents long gone were suddenly smiling and speaking messages of love to me. I saw my dad, who died four years after I got married. My mother-in-law, who is now very elderly and suffering from dementia, was vibrant and joyful. My younger sister, who was my maid of honor and died unexpectedly four years ago, was laughing at me from the screen.

Words are not adequate to express how I felt. I was unprepared for how happy seeing that little video made me. I mean really, really happy. I thought, “Wow. This is meaningful. A lot of people are going to love this.”

I was able to share the digital version of my wedding with friends and relatives. My adult daughter saw it for the first time. Everyone experienced the same joy I did when they watched it.

Remake your memories. Share them. Experience the joy.

For more information about our Digital Conversion Station or to make an appoint to use it, please visit the digital conversion page of our website.