Digitizing analog media like video cassettes is a tedious process, and requires equipment you may not have at home (your scanner can’t exactly convert a VHS tape). To lower the barrier to media conversion, the National Museum of African American History & Culture is offering a free digitization program, which will provide African-American families access to the museum’s equipment and specialists to help convert analog media to a searchable, digital version.
The Community Curation Program, available at the museum and supported by the Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center, seeks to help people digitize analog media in order to preserve the cultural identity and further explore the history of African Americans.
Participants can bring their analog media like audio recordings (Grooved Disc, DAT, CD-ROM, Audio Cassette, Reel-to-Reel Audiotape), video recordings (U-Matic, MiniDV, VHS, DigiBeta, Betacam, Hi-8), and film reels (35mm, 16mm, 8mm, Super 8) to the museum, where you’ll be able to digitize and search your converted recordings and films.
Eventually, the museum will add select digitized media to its Family History Center exhibit. Normally, turning a videotapes into files on a flash drive would be a pricey ordeal, so the free service can potentially save families hundreds of dollars. To get your family’s moving memories digitized, you’ll need to send an email to the museum and schedule an appointment to visit in person and convert your media (at least you can tour the museum while you wait).
Updated 11/21/17: According to NMAAHC Media Archivist Walter Forsberg, the museum only digitizes audiovisual media like videotapes, audio recordings, and film reels. Photographs are not eligible for conversion. We have updated the article accordingly.