Digital media lab earns library national recognition

The Oscar Grady Library in Saukville has been recognized by the American Library Association for its digital media conversion lab, which converts patrons’ photographs, films, videos and other material to digital formats.

The ALA’s Public Library Association Division named the library winner of the John Iliff Award, which recognizes a facility that “has used technology and innovative thinking as a tool to improve services to public library users,” according to an announcement on the association’s website.

Oscar Grady “is being acknowledged for being the first in the country to create a digital media conversion lab wherein the public can convert multiple image formats into digital files, thus allowing users to preserve family photographs and film. This new service has since been replicated across the country in public and academic libraries, all using the original model which was uniquely developed in Saukville,” the announcement states.

“Winning this award is an incredible,  unexpected honor; every one of us can be exceptionally proud to be acknowledged by this,” Oscar Grady Library Director Jen Gerber said in a memo to library staff.

Gerber singled out staff members Hope Lawrence, Tyler Quaas and Martin Morante for developing the conversion process and local historian Jim Peterson, who donated his collection of historic photos, postcards and film dating to the 1840s to the library to be digitized. Peterson died in 2018.

Gerber came up with the idea for the lab after trying to digitize her father’s collection of Super 8 films and slides.

Seeing that other people had the same need, Gerber solicited the assistance of her staff and got the program running with the help of a $5,000 grant from the state Department of Public Instruction and $3,700 in matching funds from the Village of Saukville, which covered the cost of purchasing equipment and repurposing a study room.

It took about a year for the staff to become proficient with the processes, and the project was rolled out in 2012.

In 2014, the project won a Governor’s Award through the Wisconsin Historical Society.

News of the award prompted articles on the project in library trade magazines and garnered attention from libraries around the state and across the nation.

Librarians from other states visited Saukville to see how the program worked and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison began using the lab’s experience in a class on digital conversion. 

The lab is free to any public library patron in Wisconsin, Gerber said.

The award was to be presented to the Oscar Grady staff at the ALA’s annual conference planned for this summer in Chicago, but the conference has been canceled because of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

“We will find a meaningful way for all of us to celebrate this achievement once things get back to normal,” Gerber wrote to her staff.

“Until then, I hope this news gives you all a little bit of a glow today.”