Re: Obsolete Media Laboratory setup

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Helen Stoltz-Wood (helen.f.stoltz-wood@my.uwrf.edu)
Fri, 4 Feb 2022 20:12:12 +0000



From: Helen Stoltz-Wood <helen.f.stoltz-wood@my.uwrf.edu>
Subject: Re: Obsolete Media Laboratory setup
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 20:12:12 +0000
Message-ID: <CY4PR03MB3335BC50EAA778BD2F42AB0BB4299@CY4PR03MB3335.namprd03.prod.outlook.com>

Sounds wonderful Russ - I don't know how to use any of which you speak SO probably don't have any of it. We MIGHT have an old Mac - but not sure. W hen we exchange pleasantry while we load up that old country school desk - perhaps you can take a look and let me know? Good job! The best to Margo/ cheers/hsw
________________________________ From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu < <localhistory-request@listser ve.uwec.edu> on behalf of russhanson <russhanson@grantsburgtelcom.net> Sent: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 9:22 AM To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu <localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu>; Jane t.Seymour@wisconsinhistory.org <Janet.Seymour@wisconsinhistory.org> Subject: Obsolete Media Laboratory setup

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



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