In a cold, dark vault in the basement of the State Library in Brisbane, rack upon rack of ageing film reels sit dormant.

The room is kept at a chilly four degrees Celsius and 35 per cent humidity to preserve 4,000 extremely fragile film strips from the early 20th century.

Margaret Warren, the library's acting content management director, said many are home videos shot on hand-held cameras — but most of their contents remain a secret, even to her.

Ms Warren said digitising films in the State Library's collection was an extremely expensive process. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

"We keep them in a stable environment that stops them from deteriorating further while we work out how to get the money that's needed to digitise them," she told ABC Radio Brisbane.

The reels have been donated to the library from all over Queensland.

Before making it into the temperature-controlled vault, they are quarantined and frozen to remove any insects hoping to hitch a ride into the library's collection.

Then begins the delicate process of identifying what is on each film strip by turning them through a hand reel and light box, or winding them through a flatbed film editor called a Steenbeck.

Thousands of film reels are stored in temperature-controlled vaults. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

SLQ hires specialist contractors to perform the painstaking task of converting the flimsy analogue film into digital files.

In some cases, Ms Warren said they only had one chance to get it right.

"They're so fragile that it's a one-shot wonder," she said.

"If we want to do the science and see what's on them we only get one turn at it, because otherwise it'll deteriorate and never be able to be seen."

A flatbed film editor is used to identify what is on each reel. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

Hidden treasure in the everyday

The library's Reel Rescue program has already uncovered some interesting moments in the state's history.

One clip from 1954 captured Queen Elizabeth II's drive down Brisbane's Kingsford Smith Drive as throngs of people waved flags and cheered.

The library was able to digitise film capturing the Queen's visit to Brisbane in 1954. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

Another reel showed daily life in Brisbane in the 1930s and '40s — families at the beach, demonstrations in the city, and crowds gathered around a dead shark on the banks of the Brisbane River.

"You might ask why we want to see people's home movies but, in fact, they paint an incredible picture of what Queensland was like in the first half of the 20th century," Ms Warren said.

"How people lived their lives, what they did at home, what they were interested in, what they wore, what their homes were like."

Curators only have one chance to preserve some films. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

Ms Warren said a recently restored film that showed a group of Quakers going about their daily life in the early 1940s was a good example of the "treasure" hiding in cold storage.

"[They] were conscientious objectors in World War II and were persecuted because they'd made a decision that they wouldn't participate in the war," she said.

"They went down near Springwood, got 100 acres, built a farm and sort of became self-sustaining to escape that persecution.

"It's a story people don't know about."

The library's collection includes home movies from all over Queensland. ( ABC Radio Brisbane: Hailey Renault )

The State Library, which is government funded, estimated digitising the entire collection could cost more than $1 million.

Ms Warren said the library's foundation was now focused on attracting donations for the Reel Rescue program to make sure more films were preserved for the future.