In the heart of The Goleman Learning Resource Center, Librarian Lena Zaghmouri converts memory to video.
Memories of joy, like the “Exposure” fashion show hosted by Miss America 1996, Shawntel Smith.
Or some memories that shouldn’t be forgotten, like a talk from Elane Norych Geller, the child of a Holocaust survivor.
These memories come in the form of early analog video recordings that urgently need to be preserved, “We’re going to lose it [the footage] if it’s not done somewhat soon” said Zaghmouri.
“Once it can’t be played, it can’t be digitized,” said Zaghmouri, who archives footage between her other responsibilities at the library.
The process can be time consuming because the thumb-sized converter, an Elgato Video Capture, when plugged into compatible devices like laptops, iPads and even VHS players, must run the entire video to finish digitizing. This can mean hours of conversion before the content is ready for YouTube.
“Once it can’t be played, it can’t be digitized,” said Zaghmouri, who archives footage between her other responsibilities at the library.
The process can be time consuming because the thumb-sized converter, an Elgato Video Capture, when plugged into compatible devices like laptops, iPads and even VHS players, must run the entire video to finish digitizing. This can mean hours of conversion before the content is ready for YouTube.
Elgato is also limited in the material it can convert. Chief of concern is the U-Matics, a small videocassette often used for broadcast television in the 1970s, which requires a U-Matic player, an old form of technology that Delta doesn’t have.
For memories this historic, Zaghmouri must outsource to Smooth Photo Scanning, a digitization company in Lodi, New Jersey. The exchange, Zaghmouri said, adds a couple of months to the process. In exchange, the library saves money and receives a greater quality remaster than inhouse devices could provide.
Space, said Zaghmouri, is another concern. When converting video for the Drama Department, the VHS tapes had to be returned rather than stored in the library due to the lack of space. This could affect other departments with more videos to convert.
With such an unforgiving deadline of degradation, and nowhere to store all of the waiting memories, Zaghmouri can devote only so much time to the conservation of Delta history.
To ease the strain, could a dedicated archivist be in The Goleman Library’s future?
“That’s been tossed around for the past like 30 years,” said Zaghmouri, “but I don’t know where that’s going.”
Perhaps there is no need for a dedicated archivist.
“That’s been tossed around for the past like 30 years,” said Zaghmouri, “but I don’t know where that’s going.”
Perhaps there is no need for a dedicated archivist.
“It’s a team effort,” said Librarian Steve Schermerhorn, adding that some of the video’s dates — which are unknown due to technological limits of the past — could be recovered and archived by long time Delta faculty such as himself, and even by his extensive email history which could pinpoint more exact dates.
So until the digitization project can find time, space and funding, the librarians strive to preserve what they can.
“The goal is mostly to get as much done as quickly as possible to make sure they don’t degrade anymore,” said Zaghmouri, who projects continued small scale plans for the project of Delta’s memory preservation.
