Thursday, October 1, 2026
Boxes of aging VHS tapes, metal canisters of 8-millimeter film and slide carousels once consigned storage closet at Locust Valley High School are now the nucleus of a local history project at the Locust Valley Public Library.
The library has received hundreds of hours of 20th-century high school sports footage from the Locust Valley High School Athletic Department, and is in the process of digitizing and preserving the material, with dozens of games already available for public viewing online and more to come.
The collection, donated to the library last February, spans decades of athletic history and includes high school football, basketball and lacrosse games filmed as early as the 1950s, according to labels on the original reels. Head Librarian Nadine Buccilli said the scope of the donation became clear only after library staff began assessing the material.
It arrived in multiple formats. There are more than 300 VHS tapes, a number of 8-millimeter film reels in metal tins, and carousels of slides, some partially filled or empty. According to Buccilli, the VHS tapes alone fill 343 cassettes totaling more than 686 hours of footage.
“We didn’t know what we were doing with them when we first got them,” she said. “But initially, my thought was, let’s see if it’s something we can preserve and digitize so that there’s access to them. This really is a preservation project first, and digitizing is part of that.”
Because magnetic tape degrades more rapidly than film, the library prioritized the VHS tapes. Staff members contacted the Atreyu Project, a company that works with libraries and historical societies to restore old audio recordings and create digital archives, which agreed to assess the condition of the tapes at no cost. After testing an initial batch of 10 tapes and confirming that they were in good shape, the library moved forward with the digitizing process.
Using grant funding, it began by having 54 VHS tapes digitized and uploaded to its website. Those videos, which range in date from 1971 through 2005, are now available to the public and featured on the library’s homepage.
“There are 55 up on the website right now, VHS only,” Buccilli said. “My goal was to … at least make some progress with this within a year, and I feel we did that. We got it in February, and it’s up in January.”
To guide the broader preservation effort, the library also turned to the Long Island Library Resources Council, a nonprofit created by the state in 1966 to support libraries across Nassau and Suffolk counties. The council provides continuing education, archival consulting and digitization services to its member institutions.
Nicole Menchise, the council’s digitization and archives coordinator, said that the Locust Valley library submitted an application in July after receiving the films. The request was placed in the council’s Accessing Archives program, which sends a project archivist to institutions that lack the staff or expertise to manage specialized materials.
The archivist, Robert Annen, is scheduled to begin work at the library this spring. He will inspect the films, repair them if needed, digitize as much material as possible and rehouse the originals in proper archival containers for long-term storage.
Once digitized, many of the films will be made available on the New York Heritage Digital Collections website, which hosts historical materials from institutions across the state. Menchise said the Locust Valley footage is expected to appear later this year.
The significance of the collection extends beyond Locust Valley, according to those involved. While the footage documents the Falcons’ athletic history, it also captures their opponents over the decades, including teams from Cold Spring Harbor, East Rockaway, Floral Park, Glen Cove and Oyster Bay.
“It’s not just the Locust Valley schools,” Menchise said. “It’s schools across Long Island that the Locust Valley teams have played. It’s a really interesting catalog of this athletic history across Nassau and Suffolk counties through three decades of film.”
Jennifer Santo, the library’s reference librarian, has played a key role in organizing the project and preparing metadata so the digitized footage can be accurately described and searched online. The library is also investing in staff training to ensure that future uploads are properly cataloged.
For Buccilli, part of the appeal lies in the human connections captured in the grainy footage. Some of the older films lack sound, while later VHS recordings capture announcers and crowd noise, complete with distinctive Long Island accents.
“You hear some pretty good accents,” Buccilli said. “Great things that bring you right back. It’s just a nice snapshot of the times.”
The response from the community, she said, has already been encouraging. One former Locust Valley resident now living in California contacted the library shortly after the videos went online, eager to see footage from his hometown.
“I really hope that people do feel a sense of community,” Buccilli said. “Being able to see your grandparents playing in a game, or sharing it with your grandchildren. These things were filmed as part of the school’s and the community’s life.”
The library views the project as an ongoing initiative rather than a one-time release. Grant applications are pending to fund additional digitization, particularly of the 8-millimeter films, some of which date back to the 1950s. Library officials also hope to collaborate with the school district on future programming, such as public screenings.
“It’s history that doesn’t have a good shelf life if you don’t do something with it,” Buccilli said. “We’re very proud of the work the library’s done, and we’re super thankful to the high school and the athletic department for thinking of us. This is something that’s only going to grow.”
To learn more about the project and to view some of the old film, visit LocustValleyLibrary.org.
