Research into the history of California’s coastal dunes depends on more than field observations and modern technology. For researchers at UC Santa Barbara, decades of aerial photography provide an invaluable record of how dune landscapes and vegetation have changed over time. Yet many of the historic images that make this research possible were themselves at risk of disappearing.

The research led by Professor Ian Walker, Marine Science Institute Principal Investigator and head of UCSB’s SANDLab, drew extensively on the UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections (SRC), which houses rare aerial photographs dating back roughly 100 years. Many of these photographs are vulnerable to vinegar syndrome, a chemical deterioration process that causes film to become brittle and eventually unusable.

To preserve the collection, library staff stored vulnerable film in specialized refrigerators, but this method was costly and limited by available space. Outsourcing the high-quality scans needed for Walker’s research was also prohibitively expensive, while the library’s existing digitization facilities lacked the ventilation and specialized equipment required to safely handle the deteriorating film.

In response, UCSB developed an innovative in-house solution. Staff from the Special Research Collections, Digital Library Development Department and Library Building Operations partnered with the UCSB Physics Machine Shop and Environmental Health & Safety to create a specialized digitization facility. They installed appropriate ventilation and developed a camera-based system capable of digitizing materials up to 20 times faster than previous equipment.

The project also created efficient workflows for trained student assistants to digitize the fragile photographs at a fraction of the projected outsourcing cost. The result was not only a practical preservation strategy but also a valuable resource for coastal research.

Although the library’s digitization initiative was not created specifically for SANDLab, the dune research demonstrates how preserving historical collections can directly support scientific discovery. High-resolution scans allow researchers to identify long-term changes in dune vegetation and landscapes, providing information that can guide efforts to restore native dunes and improve environmental and public health outcomes.

UCSB Library is continuing to digitize the remaining at-risk film. Its aerial photography archive contains more than 2.5 million images, making it the largest known collection of its kind in an academic library.

The preservation effort ensures that these photographs will remain available not only for current coastal research but also for future generations of scientists seeking to understand how California’s landscapes have changed—and how they might be restored..

Adapted from original reporting by Keith Hamm, “UCSB team saves historic aerial photos critical to coastal research,” The Current, UC Santa Barbara, 2026.