Digitizing for Esquimalt
Esquimalt is about fifteen minutes from my workshop in Colwood. It is also the one place in the region with a free scanning room at the library, so it is worth being straight with you about when that is the better option.
The Library Scanner Is Genuinely Good
The Greater Victoria Public Library runs a free self-serve digitizing space at its Esquimalt branch. With a library card you can use their equipment to scan photographs and slides and transfer tapes yourself. It costs nothing and it works.
If you have thirty photographs, an afternoon, and some patience, that is the right answer and I will tell you so. Where it stops being the right answer is volume and awkwardness. Everything there runs at your own pace with your own hands, so a thousand photographs is a great many afternoons, and a mouldy tape or a brittle reel is not something you want to learn on.
I have written the comparison out properly on the free library scanner page.
When to use the library
A shoebox of ordinary prints, a handful of slides, a couple of tapes in good condition. If that is what you have and you enjoy the doing of it, the library is free and I am not going to talk you out of it.
When to bring it to me
Hundreds or thousands of pieces, albums you do not want to dismantle, film reels, mouldy or squealing tapes, formats the library equipment does not cover, or simply not wanting to spend your evenings doing it.
Fifteen minutes away either way
Bring the box here first if you like. I will tell you honestly which parts of it are worth paying me for and which parts you could happily do yourself at the library. That conversation costs nothing.
How It Works
Drop-Off in Colwood
Use my online form to book a private drop-off time. This ensures I can review your items with you personally when you arrive.
Approve Estimate
Once I have your project, I don't just process it. I inspect the condition of every tape and page. If I find something that needs special attention, I’ll call you.
Enjoy and Share
You'll get a private link to everything, and a USB drive to keep if you want one. You can finally watch your memories on your phone, tablet, or TV.
What a job starts at.
Bring a collection to the Colwood workshop and a job starts at $49. If the work comes to $99 or more I will drive out and collect it myself, and the drive is not a line on your bill. Either way you get a written figure before I start anything, and looking is free.
The workshop on Metchosin Road, about fifteen minutes from Esquimalt. The library's free scanning room is closer still.
Questions From Around Here
Why would I pay you when the library is free?
For a small collection you probably would not, and I will say so if I think that. The library is free, it is close to you, and the equipment is fine. What it costs you is your own time, one item at a time, and it is not the place to work out what to do with a mouldy tape or a brittle film reel. Volume and fragility are what shift the answer.
Can you do the difficult ones and I do the rest myself?
Yes, and that is a sensible way to spend your money. Bring the whole lot, we will separate out the awkward formats and the fragile items, I will quote you for those, and you can take the straightforward prints home and run them yourself.
I will tell you if you do not need me.
Book a look. If your collection is small enough that the library is the sensible answer, I will say so and you will have lost nothing.