The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is offering guests a unique experience: the chance to recollect memories they may have long forgotten.
In the library’s do-it-yourself digitization lab, dubbed the Recollection Studio, everything from 8mm film and CDs to VHS and cassette tapes can be digitized and protected from the passage of time.
Emily Kubincanek, Digital Community Collections Specialist at the library’s Main branch, said the space allows guests to uncover memories they may not have been able to access otherwise.
“We always have tissues in here because some people haven’t been able to play back their tapes before, so they might be hearing a loved one’s voice for the first time in 10 or 15 years—or for the first time ever,” Kubincanek said.
And there’s no telling what guests may bring in to digitize. According to Rachel Rossi, Digital Collections Librarian at the library, most visitors arrive with run-of-the-mill family photos and home videos, but every once in a while something more unusual passes through the scanner.
“One guest brought in photos of a family member who was a Lithuanian monk, so there were pictures of him with all sorts of beautiful mountain scenery. It was really amazing,” Rossi said.
The effort to preserve memories is one that resonates with the team at QBurgh, where we have been working to expand our own digital archives.
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QBurgh’s Q Archives houses a nearly complete collection of LGBTQ publications from across Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region.
The collection includes Pittsburgh Gay News, now more than halfway digitized; Gay Life Pittsburgh, fully archived; and Pittsburgh’s Out, the city’s longest-running LGBTQ publication, currently about 24% digitized.
For the LGBTQ community, archives like these serve as proof of life. At a time when queer people were frequently absent from mainstream media coverage, community publications documented everyday realities—relationships, activism, firsthand accounts of the HIV/AIDS crisis as it unfolded and community celebrations alike.
Preserving those pages ensures that the history of queer life in Pittsburgh remains visible for future generations.
Projects like Q Archives highlight why public access to spaces like the Recollection Studio is so important. At the Recollection Studio, we were able to digitize footage from the 2005 Pittsburgh Pride Parade.
By providing access to digitization tools, the Carnegie Library gives individuals the opportunity to archive their personal and family histories.
The equipment in the Recollection Studio follows standards set by the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative. The equipment includes flatbed scanners and an overhead scanner that allow print documents, photographs, and artwork to be digitized.
Rossi, who has a background in digitization through her Master of Library and Information Sciences degree with a focus on digital archives, said there is often a learning curve for guests using the equipment.
“There’s a lot of trial and error when people are first learning how to use the machines,” Rossi said.
Kubincanek, whose MLIS program focused on audiovisual archive management, said some visitors become so comfortable with the technology that they eventually purchase equipment of their own.
“Some guests have come in, learned how to use the equipment here and then gone out and bought it themselves,” Kubincanek said.
The Recollection Studio first opened in 2017 through a grant and continues to operate through the library’s general budget.
“A lot of the equipment in the studio, believe it or not, was sourced from eBay, which feels like a strange place to spend the library’s budget sometimes,” Kubincanek said. “Oftentimes, we are repairing and performing maintenance on the equipment ourselves, so learning those new audio and video skills has been really enjoyable.”
The studio currently supports a wide range of media formats, including VHS and VHS-C tapes, audio cassette tapes, mini and micro cassettes, Hi8 and Digital8 video tapes, film reels, slide photographs, and physical photographs or documents up to 11 by 17 inches.
“People who have sent videos away to be digitized sometimes aren’t happy with the quality,” Kubincanek said. “The studio is a great way to be part of the process yourself.”
The goal of the space, librarians say, is for visitors to learn how to use the equipment and eventually feel comfortable digitizing their own materials—with staff available to guide them through the process.
For some visitors, that preservation means hearing a voice they haven’t heard in years.
Pittsburgh Queer Memory Unlocked!
Did you know that the statues at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, “Gay Liberation” by George Segal, were on display here in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Museum of Art in the summer of 1984?
