Digitise your family history

Do you have old VHS tapes, negatives, slides and photographs with treasured family memories that are sitting around, unable to be viewed?

Waverley Library's Family History Digitisation Station lets you convert your valuable records into digital format and bring them back to life - completely free.

Call us on 9083 8733 to make a booking to use the station.  The station can be booked any time during library opening hours.  Please let staff know if you will require more than 15 minutes’ basic assistance, and we can book you in for 60 minutes of dedicated one-to-one assistance.

Media suitable for conversion

The following types of media can be digitised:

  • Film negatives
  • 35mm slides
  • VHS tapes
  • Photographs
  • Hi8 and Video8 tapes

Is there a cost to use the equipment?

No – the digitisation station is completely free to use. You’ll need to ensure that you have a way of storing your new digital files, either via cloud storage or a USB storage device.

What skills do I need?

You will need basic computer skills to operate the digitisation station. At the station you can find detailed, step-by-step instructions to help you use the equipment.

Library staff are available to help you and provide a brief initial orientation, but are not able to stay with you for the whole session. If you require more in-depth assistance using the station, please let us know and we will be able to book you in for a one-hour, one-to-one introduction.

How long does scanning take?

Scanning documents like photographs and negatives takes approximately one minute per item. VHS tapes will need to be played all the way through in real time in order to be digitised.

You must be in attendance for the whole digitisation process.

Terms and conditions for digitisation station use

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have appropriate copyright approval to digitise and reproduce your items. Visit the Australian Copyright Council for more information and fact sheets.

Use of the family history digitisation station is at your own risk. Waverley Council does not accept liability for any damage to, loss, or erasure of data from any media that you bring to digitise at the station.

Library staff have the right to end any session or delete any recording that is deemed to be inappropriate.