In December 2019, after a rewarding 30 years at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory — including 22 in the Lab’s Media and Communications Office — Jane Koropsak retired.
Then, she returned two months later.
David Manning, director of the Stakeholders Relations Office, asked her to assist with an important project: sorting through an estimated 8,000 historical videos.
Koropsak was deemed ideal for this task. “I really was looking forward to doing all of this,” she said. “I love the Lab’s history. I think we work in an extremely historical, valuable, interesting place.”
Manning noted that “having worked in the Media and Communications role for so many years, Jane possessed the unique ability of understanding the content and context of the archive.” He added that her work on this project made new initiatives possible: “Her extensive knowledge of the Lab’s history and people enabled us to prioritize our efforts once the digitization technology was sufficiently advanced and funding became available. As a result, we were able to preserve this critical Laboratory history and make it accessible for decades to come.”
Koropsak sorted through hundreds of boxes, watching videos to decide whether to keep them, put them on hard drives, archive them, or discard them. Documented in a Lab-produced segment from 2021, Koropsak’s work was part of a larger collaboration with Cultural Resource Manager Timothy Green, the Media and Communications Office, and Creative Resources to make the Lab’s historic resources available for future queries.
Working part-time over about two years organizing these videos, Koropsak encountered various media formats dating back to the 1950s including Betamax tape, reel-to-reel tapes, DVDs, CDs, and audio cassettes.
The main motivation for determining what to digitize is that magnetic media will eventually degrade over time. Roger Stoutenburgh and Joseph Rubino—now-retired photographers who worked at Brookhaven for many decades—also assisted in this effort. Timothy Kuhn contributed by acquiring and troubleshooting old machines needed to view aging footage.
“Jane had the responsibility of looking at every last one of these things,” Green recalled with a chuckle.
This task required some detective work. “If it wasn't clear what was written on the tape,” Green explained,“that meant popping it into a player...and trying to figure out what it's all about.” If Koropsak had doubts about any material's significance or relevance, she would consult Green for a second opinion.
They decided to retain materials related to high-level science as well as all Brookhaven Lectures and anything involving past Lab directors while discarding outdated safety trainings or certain Brookhaven Employees' Recreation Association (BERA) videos since many BERA activities were also captured in photo archives.
Koropsak's task revealed significant moments from both major turning points and everyday life at Brookhaven such as footage from a 1950s holiday party or beam acceleration enactment at Alternating Gradient Synchrotron in early 1960s; more recent finds included groundbreaking ceremony footage from Center for Functional Nanomaterials—a DOE Office user facility—in 2005.
Videos designated for preservation were sent off-site for digitization which condensed video storage volume by almost half making content easily accessible via physical formats like hard drives locatable through custom-built archival databases constructed with assistance from Kuhn.
“If somebody was coming in...we could send them a copy...easily transmittable,” said Green.“Then they could come back...‘I'd like video number 1-308,’...we would be able find it.”
“I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this project,” Koropsak reflected.“I think it's important remembering where we started...how we got here.”
After completing video archiving tasks Koropsak continued tackling additional archival treasures: hundreds thousands photo negatives dating back Lab's beginning in1947 working alongside photographers identifying which photos should be scanned tagging each photo appropriately within online platforms printed copies Bulletin—the lab newspaper ceased operation2012 highlighting events accomplishments employee achievements sports BERA activities among others eliminating duplicates condensing contents into organized format transferring copies press releases dating back1946 pre-opening until2003 when online versions became official record into sturdier storage cases
Green oversees collection artifacts from site’s time Camp Upton Army induction training center World Wars displayed Berkner Hall building400 lobby permanent storage occasionally donated items
Green dedicates quarter his time cultural resource work but excited share replacement hire full-time upon retirement later year taking torch continuing review countless negatives re-scanning Bulletin copies improving resolution limitations original scans preserving institutional history recognizing scientist pioneers contributions towards present day advancements nodding agreement concluded“if save archive available scientific historians somebody tell story down road”