|
Activities >> Current
Activites >> Audio
Preservation |
|
Audio Preservation
There is a large and valuable heritage of audio recordings
that span more than a century in the libraries and archives
of the United States. Many are rare and fragile; often they
are not described or inventoried. Equipment needed to play
these resources may be obsolete. They may also lack clearly
documented rights that allow use. Because it is difficult and
costly to make these resources available to students, they
are often underused.
CLIR has initiated the following projects relating to impediments
to access to audio collections.
Survey of the State of Audio Recordings in Academic
Libraries. The purpose of this survey was to gather
evidence that would document the state of audio collections
and gauge the extent of the challenges libraries face in
this area. The survey also sought to identify library holdings
of historical or cultural value that warrant preservation
and access. The survey instrument asked 100 questions focused
on five areas related to sound recordings: access, rights,
preservation, funding and resources, and policy. Eighty-two
data sets were collected from the survey, which was conducted
at both large and small research libraries. The survey
results and analysis were published in August 2004.
Studies on Sound-recording Preservation and Restoration.
CLIR is overseeing several studies on behalf of the National
Recording Preservation Board, under the auspices of the Library
of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure and
Preservation Program.
- In February 2004, CLIR and LC convened a task force of
audio preservation engineers to identify technological
challenges to recorded sound preservation and make recommendations
on how to meet those challenges. CLIR published the task
force's findings in Capturing
Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable
Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs
and Tapes (March 2006).
- In March 2006, CLIR convened a second experts' roundtable, "Issues in Digital Audio Preservation Planning and Management." The meeting was framed by a series of white papers on storage and archiving solutions for smaller archives, measuring and evaluating analog-to-digital converters for long-term storage, the merits and drawbacks of established file formats, how to increase efficiency in transferring analog discs for digital preservation, and how the archival community can engage the scientific community in solving audio preservation problems.
- CLIR commissioned two reports on recorded-sound copyright
law. The first report, published in December 2005, addresses the
digital preservation and digital distribution of pre-1972
commercial sound recordings, taking into account underlying
works that may or may not be in the public domain. The
second report will analyze digital preservation and digital
distribution issues related to radio broadcast recordings,
paying attention to the vague provenance of the original
recording, the rights of trade unions and guilds, the lack
of contractual documentation related to creation of the
works, and the possible inclusion within the works of copyrighted
underlying works. It will be published in 2007.
|
