Memory Lab

The Memory Lab is a grant-funded program that enables people to digitize and preserve their histories. It’s a Do-It-Yourself model, meaning step-by-step instructions are provided, but you control the process from start to finish. You bring your materials and a storage device and we provide the equipment and instructions.

What makes up the library’s Memory Lab? Equipment and information for conversion of analog formats to digital. The Lab can currently support the following formats:  VHS, cassette tapes, 8mm film, Super 8 film, vinyl records, photographs, negatives, and slides.

Community members will need to take a 30-minute training session and will then be able to reserve time in the lab in three hour blocks. The Memory Lab is open Monday - Friday by appointment.

Story Center Grant

In December 2023, the Mellon Foundation awarded the Boyle County Public Library (BCPL) a $1 million grant for a five-year project to significantly expand its local history collection and programming by preserving and sharing stories of local life. The project will help local residents digitize documents and media through an expanded Memory Lab. The library’s proposal calls for working with local historical groups to create a new Story Center, which will collect and share stories of local life and events throughout Boyle County’s history. Click here to learn more about the Story Center grant.

Memory Lab First Patron
Chuck McGuire using the lab to scan images from his time in the Air Force in the 1950s.
History Mural