‘A fuller picture’: Library brings preservation tools to residents, filling gaps in Richmond’s history

The Richmond Public Library’s Memory Lab isn’t just converting old photos and videos to digital formats — its librarians see it as helping to better tell the stories of Richmonders.

One woman digitized a vacation video to show to her mom, who has Alzheimer’s. Others bring in photos or slides for birthdays, funerals and other family celebrations, or intriguing items to explore, such as a film canister found in a thrift store. Neighborhood groups and local churches have also come in with things they have accumulated over time and go through the digitization process together. 

“As you're digitizing, you watch it back in real time, especially for the AV formats,” said special collections librarian Chloe McCormick. “So it can be an emotional process, but it's a really good process to kind of sit down, relax and reminisce while you're doing it.”

McCormick helps oversee the Memory Lab, which is located in the Main Library’s Special Collections Room, and allows residents to digitize their home media, such as photos, documents, VHS tapes, film and scrapbooks. The lab also allows people to check out Personal Archiving Kits, which include cameras, audio recorders and portable scanners. The lab requests people make an appointment before visiting. 

“It really is all about putting this equipment in the hands of those who are passionate about their own projects,” McCormick said. 

The Memory Lab has been open since 2019, but after receiving a 5-year grant from the Mellon Foundation in December 2023, the lab has been able to expand and upgrade its space and equipment, offering more ways to digitize. 

Materials patrons digitize related to Richmond’s history can also be donated to the library’s Digital Collections Platform, which will help the collections grow larger, answer more local history questions and, as a result, become a more useful resource.

The Memory Lab doesn’t just have the capability to inform and empower local residents, but also provide a historical perspective to help Richmond build a better future by avoiding the city’s past pitfalls, said Susan Revere, the RPL’s Executive Director.

“Richmond's history is connected in ways that surprise and inform almost daily,” Revere said. “And one of the things we hope to do is break down the silos that exist around local history projects so we can look at Richmond's history more comprehensively.”

Marvin Hicks, the RPL Community Memory Fellow and a life-long Richmond resident and RPL user, hopes for the Memory Lab to be utilized as much as it can. 

“I think preservation is important, because, one, if we don't understand the past, then we're destined to repeat things,” Hick1s said. “So it's good for us to have a greater understanding of the world of the past, but also, it's great for people to have their own ways to do that.”

Hicks emphasized the Memory Lab’s “do it yourself” model, which allows people to be as independent or not as they desire when working on their projects in the lab. 

“It’s their projects, and it's great to be able to help people do what they need to do to further their preservation and their memories,” Hicks said. “And when we combine all of these things together, we're able to have a fuller picture of the actual past, the fuller picture of the world as it really is versus what's more commonly told is the past.”

One project that stood out to Hicks was a patron, Todd Winters, who comes in weekly to digitize his old CDs and other forms of audio content. 

Winters first began coming to the Memory Lab in November, and now describes himself as a “power user,” regularly stopping in to work on turning his collection of around 400 or 500 CDs into MP3s. 

As a digital media enthusiast he fell in love with the access to the equipment and the ability to save and revive his media collection, Winters said. Through the Memory Lab, he was able to bring his broken beloved VHS tape of “Tougher Than Leather” back to life through digitization; a film which only exists in the VHS form, Winters said. 

“They can digitize just about any media. I'm impressed,” he said. 

Winters said he sees the value the Memory Lab brings to the community. 

“Everybody's got something, either in paper or hard form, that I just think It's a shame if you don't take advantage of that place,” he said.