In celebration of Family History Month and international Home Movie Day, the UCSB Library’s Santa Barbara Community Archives Project is partnering with the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society (SBCGS) to promote the importance of home movie collections and to provide free digitization services for Santa Barbara community members. Digitized materials will be preserved for future generations in the Library’s Local History Collections.
Current and former residents of Santa Barbara County are invited to bring their eligible films (8mm, Super 8, 16mm) to the SBCGS’s Sahyun Library (316 Castillo St) on October 24, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., and October 27, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., for free off-site digitization. Original materials and digital files will be returned to participants at no cost. UCSB Library will then provide long-term preservation for the digital copies.
To learn more about the event and the services we will provide to you as well as other local history resources available at the SBCGS Library, please check the FAQ below or stop by SBCGS’s Family History Month Open House on Sunday, October 6, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., at Sahyun Library, or at SBCGS’s monthly membership meeting on Saturday, October 19, 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara (21 E Constance Ave). Both events are free and open to the public; a SBCGS membership is not required to attend.
Host Bio
Laura Jean Treat Liebhaber is a Curator at UCSB Library Special Research Collections where she oversees the Film & Television, Santa Barbara & Local History, and Oral History Collections. Laura was born and raised in California’s Central Valley to a family of local history enthusiasts and has called Santa Barbara home since joining UCSB Library in 2020. Along with her colleague Angel Diaz, Laura launched the Santa Barbara Community Archives Project, a UCSB Library initiative to document the rich and diverse communities that make up Santa Barbara by digitizing, preserving, and sharing family histories. For more than a decade, Laura has dedicated her professional work to preserving home movies. While at the University of North Texas, Laura ran two successful home movie digitization projects and local film events under the name Spotlight: North Texas with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also participated in the Texas Archive of the Moving Image’s award winning Texas Film Round Up Program. Laura holds an M.S.I.S. from the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information. She is Member of the Board of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and Co-Chair of the AMIA Local Television Task Force.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a member of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society?
No, membership to the society is not required. We welcome all Santa Barbara County community members.How much does it cost to participate?
Participation is free for qualified collection materials.Can I make an appointment?
Space is not reservable and is available on a first-come-first serve basis during the program hours. Depending on the quantity of materials you bring and their physical condition, you may expect to spend up to 20-30 minutes with the UCSB Library curator to review the films, discuss their contents, and sign forms. See below for details on how to participate in the free program and the services we will provide you. You can also join the Society for its monthly meeting on October 19th to meet Laura and discuss the project.What types of home movies are eligible for the digitization program?
What kinds of films are you interested in for your program?
Though eligible films may come from anywhere in the Central Coast, we are particularly interested in films that feature families in the City of Santa Barbara and elsewhere in Santa Barbara County. We’re excited to see your birthday parties and other family celebrations, but we’d also love to see local parades, locally significant events, local businesses and organizations, local landmarks and places of interest, and sports and leisure activities such as surfing and skateboarding, and ranching and rodeos.What if my films were already transferred to videotape?
Even if your films were transferred to videotape years ago, if they meet the above eligibility criteria, we can digitize these materials for you using more advanced film scanning technology. We highly encourage using the original films rather than the videotape copies for both preservation and access. The quality of your digitized materials will be much improved!What if my films were already digitized?
Even if your family’s films have already been digitized, we’d still welcome the opportunity to scan them at a preservation-level quality or add your digital copies to our collection if the original films no longer exist.What will you do with my films after I drop them off?
What services are provided in this program?
What will the UCSB Library do with the digital files you create?
UCSB Library will provide the digital copies as downloadable files or on a free flash drive.
How can I get more information?
Please contact the Project Curator Laura Jean Treat Liebhaber at ljtreat@ucsb.edu.
