About the Lab

Table with Four Chairs in a Room with Computers

All of us have old format photos, slides and home movies that tell our story and the story of our family. The Digitization Lab of the Frank L. Weyenberg Library of Mequon – Thiensville offers a self-service space in which you can digitally preserve those memories. What a wonderful way to capture your history for not only yourself, but for generations to come. The Lab offers a great option to capture digital copies you can share with family. A jump drive loaded with successive birthday photos? Give a gift of holiday photos over the years? Happy anniversary? Think creatively!

The Digitization Lab is equipped with the necessary hardware and software to process various formats onto a computer and then copy to your own jump drives. Such formats include 35 mm photo negatives, transparency slides, old photographs, 16-millimeter film, 8-millimeter film, super 8-millimeter film and VHS-C hand-held camcorder home videos. The Lab also offers up-conversion for VHS and DVD formats to High Definition (HD) digital files. Commercially produced items may not be copied due to copyright regulation.

The Lab was completely paid for from donations to the Weyenberg Public Library Foundation and from the Foundation's endowment. The Foundation was established in 1982 as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity for the sole purpose of enhancing services at the Frank L. Weyenberg Library of Mequon – Thiensville. More information, including how to donate, can be found on the Foundation page.

Self-paced training videos are provided, and you must view those videos relevant to your intended Lab use prior to reserving the Lab. You must have an approved reservation prior to using the Lab; it is not available on a walk-in basis. To submit a reservation, please fill out the online form on the Reservation page.  Currently, you must be a Monarch Library System cardholder in good standing to use the Lab. And you must bring your own USB drives to copy your files. View the additional protocols on using the Lab that have been developed.