The Lab: Preserve Your Past
Keep old memories alive by turning them into digital files at The Lab: Preserve Your Past, available only at the Esquimalt Branch. Digitize and back up family albums, home recordings, and audio tapes for free with our easy-to-use equipment. By the end of the afternoon, you’ll be able to share old photos and videos with friends and family.
The Lab is open Monday to Friday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Booking The Lab
Or book in-person at the Esquimalt Branch.
- Booking in advance is required; we don’t allow walk-ins or day-of bookings.
- Book in increments of one hour, up to three hours.
- You may only book either the AV or scanning station at a time (not both).
- Book up to two weeks in advance by phone, email, or in-branch.
- Please let us know about any accessibility needs when booking.
Book an orientation
Get extra support by booking an orientation session ahead of using The Lab. Orientations are optional. Each station comes with easy-to-follow instructions and equipment that’s simple to use. If you have questions along the way, please ask our in-branch staff.
Digitize photos and tape recordings
The Lab is a free, self-serve area where you can convert physical photos and videos into digital files. We have two stations you can book time at, depending on the media you have on hand.
What to bring
You’ll save all files directly either to your own hard drive or cloud account. Bring a USB drive or another external hard drive with at least 32GB of storage. If you’re digitizing audio files, bring wired headphones with a jack.
To protect your privacy, we delete all files from library equipment after each use.
A few rules to keep in mind
The Lab is open to library users aged 10 and up. If you are between 10 and 14 years old, an adult must accompany you.
No commercial or copyrighted materials. The Lab is only for personal projects. You can’t use The Lab to digitize materials that belong to someone else, or were created for a business.
Allowed
Family photo albums
Footage or clips of a loved one’s special event
Unpublished manuscripts or recordings by you or a loved one
Newspaper or magazine clippings featuring you or a loved one
Not Allowed
Movies, music, or books created by others
Bulk digitization of newspapers, magazines, and other publications
Businesses and organizations digitizing files for commercial use
- Before entering The Lab, we’ll ask you to sign this Waiver of Release and Liability Form.
- Equipment in The Lab is for in-library use only.
- Please be kind to our equipment. Otherwise, we may have to charge you for replacement costs, or it may result in loss of access.
Audio visual (AV) equipment
Both our AV stations use VIDBOX to digitize audio and video recordings. We also have:
- For VHS: Quasar VCR Player
- For VHS-C: Digital Palmcorder VHS-C Camcorder PV-L559
- For audio tapes: Tascam 202-MKVII Double Cassette Recorder
- For miniDV: Sony DCR-TRV17
- For Digital8 and Hi8: Sony DCR-TRV350 Handycam Camcorder
Scanning equipment
Both our scanning stations come with an Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner. These specialize in scanning photos, slides, negatives, and high-quality documents.
GVPL gratefully acknowledges the financial support of: The Province of British Columbia, through the Public Libraries Branch, the Friends of the Greater Victoria Public Library, and, through the Victoria Foundation, the VIATEC Foundation Fund, the Laurence & Hazel Burt Memorial Fund, The Freya Fund, and Robert McCallum, and donors who wish to remain anonymous.