Last weekend, I visited the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in their DIY Memory Lab working on the next phase of my family digital archive project. I had a two-hour appointment for their scanner station. I used their overhead Snap Scanner to digitize a collection of family scrapbooks and baby books from the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a do it yourself scanning station. The Memory Lab employees walk you through how to use the equipment/computer and you are left on your own during your appointment, but they are available for questions.
Some of the scrapbooks I scanned are over fifty years old, with fragile pages and old plastic coverings that I did not want to pull apart just to remove photographs. I have worried about damaging irreplaceable items while trying to preserve them. The overhead scanner turned out to be the perfect solution. Instead of placing items face down on a flatbed scanner or removing photos from the pages, I was able to carefully place each scrapbook under the camera and capture high-quality images without disturbing the pages at all.
I also scanned my brother and sister’s baby books from the 1970s, preserving handwritten notes, milestone pages, and little details that often fade with time. I’m not only preserving photographs, but memories, handwriting, and pieces of our family story that deserve to be protected for future generations.
One thing I want others to know is that many libraries, archives, and historical institutions now offer Memory Labs or digitization spaces with equipment designed specifically for delicate materials like scrapbooks, albums, newspapers, and oversized documents. If you have been putting off digitizing family treasures because you are afraid of damaging them, an overhead scanner may be a wonderful option to explore.
This experience also reminded me that creating a family digital archive does not have to happen all at once. It happens one box, one scrapbook, one photograph, and one memory at a time.
Journey Through the Generations 
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