DLSS Video Lab Opens

DLSS has a new lab! In late September, under the roof of the Stanford Media Preservation Lab located at SULAIR's site on Page Mill Road, we installed equipment to support the digitization of video collections held at Stanford Libraries. Two digitization workstations, a host of analog video tape players and supporting system components, and tools for cleaning and repairing aging videotapes and other recording media are installed and in production. To put it all in operation, Michael Angeletti started as Stanford's first Moving Image Digitization Specialist. The lab is already humming with a handful of patron access requests and active planning for reformatting projects to be undertaken in the coming months.

With this expansion of the media lab -- we've had an audio digitization studio in production since 2008 -- SULAIR has completed a major step in a multi-phase effort to build internal capacity for digitally preserving its sound and moving image collections. The gear and staff expertise are in place. Now we will focus our attention on refining workflows and developing tools to support them, as well as on establishing best practices, so that the lab produces high-quality work efficiently and reliably.

Interested in a tour of the media lab? Let me know!