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New class helps people convert records, tapes, video
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Published: November 21, 2008
Got a shelf full of old records or a shoebox brimming with pictures you're not sure what to do with? The Mooresville Public Library and the Golden Boys might be able to help.
The Golden Boys, a 400-member club of men over 55, is conducting a technology class at the Mooresville Public Library at 10 a.m. today that will help people transfer records, photographs, old family films, and more into digital files that people will both be able to enjoy and to preserve for future generations. The class is free and open to the public.
Jim Lane, a member of the group and one of the people who facilitates the technology class, says the class is one of three offered by activity groups affiliated with Golden Boys. The other two, said Lane, are a travelogue class and an ancestry and genealogy class.
The technology class, said Lane, is being offered partly out of self-interest.
"We're mostly a bunch of guys over 55 with lots of old records and stuff in our closets that we would like to convert so that it is usable," he said.
But the class is also being offered to help get more people through the door of the library, said Lane.
"We really want to get more people to come to the library for these special interest activities," he said.
In addition, said Lane, the class is so effective that it has garnered praise from both Business Week magazine and the Best Buy corporation, which now uses it as a standard practice.
"It covers the gamut," he said. "It's fun. It's learning. It's an activity aimed and people who are really, remarkably, 21st century people."
The class, said Lane, is one of a series of classes dealing with technology that will run over the next four months. In today's class, said Lane, they will take a 30-year old jazz record, run it off a turntable into a Mac, record it digitally, remove the pops and scratches that distort the music, separate into tracks, and put it onto a CD and an iPod.
"That's just the tip of the iceberg," said Lane. "We kind of push the limits."
In December, January and February, said Lane, the group will continue converting audio, video and even super 8mm movies into digital files so that they can be played on iPods and even in home theaters in wide-screen format.
"We're going for an Academy Award before we're through," he said.
Lane said he hopes they'll see a good turnout for the class. "My thing is, you're never too old to learn and you're never too young to learn."
In addition to today at 10 a.m., the technology class takes place on the third Friday of every month at 10 a.m. at the Mooresville Public Library. The travelogue class is the third Thursday of every month at 6:45 p.m. at the library and the ancestry and genealogy class is at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday and occasionally the third Tuesday of every month, also at the library. All classes are two hours long and are free and open to the public.
For more information, call 704-451-1543.
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