Photo by Mark Andre.

When you filmed your kid’s lip sync performance on a camcorder or put all of your best high school essays on a floppy disk, you probably thought you were making memories that would last forever. Now, though, most computers hardly have a CD drive—let alone a place to insert a floppy disk. And good luck bringing up VHS to today’s youth. This is where the Memory Lab comes in.

The new resource is part of the Digital Commons at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, and will give people the technology and know-how they need to digitize their personal collections. It launches on Saturday.

“We want to have some slice of the culture that’s happening now for the future,” says Jamie Mears, the National Digital Stewardship Resident at the D.C. Public Library. “As an archivist, we’ve been really concerned that people’s personal collections are changing and are no longer just physical.” Her residency began in June, funded by a fellowship that DCPL applied for with the goal of getting the Memory Lab off the ground and developing a curriculum that teaches people how to preserve their digital history.

With the launch of the Memory Lab, the D.C. Public Library now has “the only project of its kind in the country with a specific eye on stewardship and preservation,” says Mears.

The methods of digital preservation don’t require any particular technical prowess, though. Mears says it’s mainly about how to name files, add descriptions, store them in the best possible format and location, and how to be an informed consumer. For instance, you may want to donate all of your email correspondences to the library so future generations can see your eloquent gifs, but whether you actually own the rights to your email depends on the service you use.

The actual Memory Lab is a do-it-yourself space. People can start booking the space for three-hour sessions to scan photos and convert files on Monday.

During the launch on Saturday, tours of the Memory Lab will happen every half hour from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Award-winning filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris will join the launch at 2 p.m. for a free screening of his film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, after which he will lead a discussion on the importance of archiving for black families in particular.

The Memory Lab launch begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 20 at the Digital Commons in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.