From: Emily Pfotenhauer <emily@wils.org> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 14:34:41 -0600 Message-ID: <CAMtke030rZKp-NLw6LagGmsM7K1iAM56ojRoT8a==8HgXQJa4g@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: Obsolete Media Laboratory setup
Hi Russ,
That's an exciting project! RADD (Recovering Analog and Digital Data),
developed by Dorothea Salo at the UW-Madison iSchool, has some great
documentation for building a "data rescue" kit, including some specific
recommended equipment and ideas on where to source it.
https://radd.dsalo.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/BuildDocumentation.pdf
There are several public libraries in Wisconsin that have set up similar
digitization labs for patrons to use. The Frank L. Weyenberg Library in
Mequon-Thiensville had great documentation of the equipment they use, plus
how-to videos:
http://www.flwlib.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/Digitization-Lab-6
Closer to your side of the state, I know the Archives and Area Research
Center at UW-River Falls has equipment for recovering data from VHS tapes,
3.5" floppies, ZIP disks, CDs and DVDs; they might be able to share some
info on their setup and the workflows they use.
Finally, it's a little old (2012) but this paper from OCLC is a good
step-by-step walk-thru of getting data off of media like floppy disks or
Zip drives and adding that content to your museum or archives collections.
https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/library/2012/2012-06.pdf
-------
Emily Pfotenhauer
Recollection Wisconsin
emily@wils.org
https://recollectionwisconsin.org
608-616-9756
On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 11:02 AM russhanson <russhanson@grantsburgtelcom.net>
wrote:
> At the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society Museum in uptown
> Cushing, WI (Polk Co NW Wisconsin) we have decided to create a small
> office room as our "Obsolete Media Laboratory."
>
> The question is -- what obsolete media should we be thinking about and
> what equipment will we need. We think much of the equipment may be
> available by donation from folks attics or buyable on Ebay or the thrift
> shop.
>
> Our idea came about when we finally got WIFI to our museum building
> and began in earnest to make use of it with our computer equipment. As
> the computer person for the group, and an old media conversion
> enthusiast, I looked at our equipment -- 2009 computer, printer and
> scanner with a couple of more modern laptops and two newer pieces of
> equipment, an large format negative scanner and a foot pedal operated
> camera on a stand for photographing items rapidly (i.e. old record
> books).
> Those last two are shared resources funded by the Wisconsin
> Historical Society mini-grants and are rarely actually at the museum,
> one being at the Burnett Co Historical Society this winter copying their
> slides and negatives and the other at the Luck Museum being used by the
> Polk Co Genealogical Society for old township record book copying. They
> give us photograph and document digitizing decently. Added to that is a
> donated stack scanner that does double-sided scans of regular or legal
> paper as well as 13x19 flatbed capabilities. It won't print, but scans
> fine!
>
> Anyway, the 2009 computer has a 3.5-inch floppy diskette drive in it,
> something that will read a type of obsolete media. Another old computer
> available will read 5.25-inch floppies. So we realized that we have the
> core of an "obsolete media" lab to digitize these old storage media.
>
> We think adding a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a cassette tape
> recorder, a mini-cassette tape recorder and maybe a record player deck
> will give us audio conversion capabilities. The earphone output can be
> connected directly to the microphone input on a computer and free audio
> software can clean it up well.
>
> We were given a 16mm projector with the 1970 movies to teach Driver's
> Ed from the local high school last year and so can play that kind of
> media. We hope to get an 8mm, Super 8mm movie projector too and a
> VHS/DVD player for video output. I tested projecting a movie in a
> completely dark room with a camera pointed at the movie screen on a
> tripod for recording it and conversion to digital and it was as good as
> the one we spent $125 for a professional conversion. So projectors are
> our inexpensive film movie conversion thought.
>
> We have to think about an old Macintosh computer with their media too.
>
> Our plan is to share it with other groups for processing their old
> media at either no cost or a minimal cost for the assistance if we need
> to do it for them. We hope to teach folks how to use the equipment we
> gather so they can do their own if they want.
>
> We do have a microfilm reader, a nonprinting one that was tossed our way
> too! With a new bulb and some adjustment of clutches, it works pretty
> well in a darkened room. Readable if not printable. I have tried
> photographing the projected images and it sort of works out, but not
> wonderfully, so am thinking about some better camera -- maybe a small
> phone type that could be velcro-ed into the projection box.
>
> What do you think? What do we need? And if you have some obsolete
> media or obsolete media players think of us before tossing it.
>
> A rather fun winter project for a retired computer professional who
> worked with just about any type of obsolete media ever invented from
> 8-inch floppies and paper tape, word processing magnetic strips and so
> on.
>
> I know we could hire this done, but my goodness the costs are high.
> About $5 for a floppy diskette!
> The photo attached is of a pristine loaded 2009 Windows XP computer,
> printer and scanner in the Obsolete Media Lab at the Cushing Museum. It
> has the 3.5 diskette drive in it, parallel and serial ports modem etc.
> State of the art for its time and works wonderfully!
>
>
> Russ Hanson
> Obsolete Media Laboratory
> Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society
>
>
>