General Resources

ARSCLIST Archives - Archive of posts to the Association for Recorded Sound Collections' Listserv.

Audio Archives - Great list of audio archives from MATRIX.

Audio Engineering Society, Standards Committe (AESSC) - The Audio Engineering Society (AES), now in its fifth decade, is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. This is the link to the Society's Standards Committee page, but it can also be used to access the Society's homepage.

Audio Preservation and Restoration - This is a great list of resources compiled by John R. Gibbs at the University of Washington Music Library. Topics range from preservation and restoration of various media to disaster plans to metadata.

Audio Preservation and Restoration Directory - This directory includes Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) members who offer services for audio preservation and restoration, as well as ARSC members and non-members who offer equipment and supplies for audio preservation and restoration. Each entry includes headings from the following list to indicate the goods and services offered. All entries are indexed by location and type of goods and services. For media restoration and preservation companies, see also the A/V Companies section of this webliography.

Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive, Resource Guide - This list of audio archiving resources was compiled by Belfer Audio Labratory and Archive, a part of the Syracuse University Library.

Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) - The goal of CLIR is to maintain and improve access to information, however recorded and preserved, through projects, programs and publications.

D-Lib Magazine - D-Lib Magazine is a solely electronic publication with a primary focus on digital library research and development, including but not limited to new technologies, applications, and contextual social and economic issues.

The Digital Audiovisual Archiving blog (DAVA) - Updated weekly, this blog features news and announcements on topics related to the digital transformation and preservation of audiovisual materials. The blog will also list upcoming conferences and workshops pertinent to archives and digital libraries, as well as links to metadata resource sites and other digital archiving resources.

Digital Document Quarterly (DDQ) - This online publication deals with technical policy and the quality of digital documents.

MATRIX - The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University. Contains links to their digital projects which include Historical Voices/National Gallery of the Spoken Word.

NorthEast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) - The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) is the largest nonprofit, regional conservation center in the United States. Its mission is to improve the preservation programs of libraries, archives, museums, and other historical and cultural organizations; to provide the highest quality services to institutions that cannot afford in-house conservation facilities or that require specialized expertise; and to provide leadership to the preservation field.

Recorded Sound Reference Center - This Library of Congress research center provides access to the commercial and archival audio holdings of the Library of Congress. The collection dates from 1926 when Victor Records donated over 400 discs to the Library's Music Division to supplement its print and manuscript holdings. In the custody of the Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division since 1978, the collection has grown to include over 2 million items encompassing audio formats from cylinders to CDs.

Spoken Word Archive Group - This working group will address points of common interest in the creation and dissemination of spoken-word digital audio archives. The final result will be a white paper describing the current-state-of-the-art in the field and providing a series of recommendations with respect to those areas in which future research should be concentrated to ensure progress. The working group was established through the cooperation of the European Union Network of Excellence for Digital Libraries (DELOS) and the United States National Science Foundation. 2002

Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Links Page - This list of resources compiled by Stanford's Archive of Recorded Sound, groups resources by collections, archiving associations, recording industry sites, and topics.

Restoration Tips and Notes - Frequently updated notes dealing with specific audio-related topics. Written by Richard L. Hess of Vignettes Media.

Restoration Resource Finder - This page, also from Richard L. Hess of Vignettes Media, lists restoration resources grouped by applicable format and by company name and location. For media restoration and preservation companies, see also the A/V Companies section of this webliography.

Transom: A Showcase & Workshop for New Public Radio - Transom.org is an experiment in channeling new work and voices to public radio through the Internet, for discussing that work, and encouraging more.

UNESCO's Audiovisual Archives Page - This page is a great reasource for current news on audiovisual projects around the world.

Audio Preservation and Digitization

Audio Digitization Standards: Digital and Multimedia Center, MSU Libraries - Audio Digitization Standards from Michigan State University's Vincent Voice Library. Brief summaries of their policies for preservation, capture, use copies, metadate, access, storage and copyright.

Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles - A revision of the Philosophy of Audiovisual Archiving published by UNESCO in 1998. This revised and renamed document reflects the changes that have occurred in the audiovisual archiving field, in the intervening period, ranging from the challenges of digitization and technological changes.

Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes - This report investigates procedures to reformat sound on analog carriers to digital media or files. It summarizes discussions and recommendations emerging from a meeting of leading audio preservation engineers held January 29–30, 2004, to assess the present state of standards and best practices for capturing sound from analog discs and tapes.

Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs - This document, published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) outlines the proper care and handling of optical media such as CDs and DVDs. It describes in nontechnical language the various types of CDs and DVDs now in use, how they are made, and how they work. It then distills current industry knowledge about disc longevity, conditions that affect life expectancy, and how to care for optical media. The guide is amply illustrated and includes a glossary and bibliography. The guide was written for use by librarians and archivists; however, it will be equally useful to any business or individual wishing to safeguard CD or DVD collections. (This report is archived at: http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.05/digitalPhysicalMediaAndDevice.html, where there are also links to a one-page reference guide and the CLIR's web-based version of the report.)

The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials - This paper By Gilles St-Laurent of the National Library of Canada discusses not only the care and handling of various types of audio media, but also the nature of sound in general, as well as its recording and playback. It is very specific about the makeup and degradation patterns of various recording media, but since it was published in 1996, current issues and media are not discussed.

Care of Sound Recordings: National Library of New Zealand - This site recommends how best to take care of sound recordings, including proper environment and handling, mainly of magnetic media and cylinder recordings.

Conservation OnLine (COOL): Preservation of Audio Materials - Resources for Conservation Professionals. This page contains a great list of resources on the topic, grouped by the following sub-topics: Format and Sound Recording History, Standards, Guidelines, and Best Practices, Bibliographic Resources, Digital Audio: Guides, Formats, Books & Articles, Projects, Standards, Organizations Concerned With Audio, Preservation, Mailing Lists, Audio Preservation Resources at Other Sites. Great place to begin researching the topic.

Digital Audio at the National Library of Canada - This site contains guidelines/best practices for the digitization of audio, used by the National Library of Canada.

CDP Digital Audio Working Group - This site contains information about the Collaborative Digitization Program's Digital Audio Working Group, including their Digital Audio Best Practices document (in PDF format).

E-MELD School of Best Practice: Digitization of Audio Files - This site promotes best practices in digitizing language data, and contains a very useful glossary of terms related to digitization, linked from within each document. This particular page discusses best practices in the Digitization of Audio Files.

The Grammy Foundation's Producers and Engineering Wing Guidelines and Recommendations - This page provides documents which outline guidelines and recommendations for the delivery of master recordings, Pro Tools session interchange and surround sound production.

Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries - The goal of this document by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), is to assist librarians and library administrators who are developing media collections and services.


International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA)- Technical Committee Paper, The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy Version 3, December 2005 - These general guidelines are for the safeguarding of the audio heritage in answer to requests from the members of IASA for advice about the direction to take in an increasingly digital environment. This document identifies problem areas and proposes recommended practices for sound and AV archives. These recommendations are a balance between the ideal situation and the real world. Their focus is on the various issues relating to responsible audio archiving practice. At the same time, a consistent terminology is used, to accomodate people with technical as well as financial responsibility for a collection. (There is also a web-based version of this report located at: http://www.iasa-web.org/IASA_TC03/iasa_tc03.htm.)

Library of Congress Digital Formats for Content Reproductions - Includes sections on Sound Recordings (in downloadable and streaming formats) and Headers for Computer Files. Only describes deliverable files, not archival-quality files. July 13, 1998.

Magnetic tape deterioration - This page briefly discusses the importance of proper care, handling and reformatting of magnetic tape.

National Technology Alliance: Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling - This paper, published by The Commission on Preservation and Access and the National Media Laboratory, provides in-depth information on the proper storage and handling of magnetic tape media, including some very good color diagrams.

NEDCC Technical Leaflet, Sec. 1, Leaflet 7- Preservation Concerns in Building Design: Select Bibliography - This technical leaflet from the Northeast Document Conservation Center presents resources about building design from the archival perspective.

NINCH Guide to Good Practice - Covers many aspects of digital projects, including planning, selection, rights management, capture, and quality control. October, 2002.

Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI): Audio and Audiovisual material - This site from the National Library of Australia gives some explaination of preserving audio digitally, along with some really good links and resources related to the topic.

Preserving Oral History Recordings - This paper discusses the digitization and maintainence of oral history recordings at the National Library of Australia, and takes a more theoretical approach to digitization, explaining the reasoning for techonlogical decisions made, and comparing the process to that at other institutions.

Recommendations for Digitizing for RLG Cultural Materials - Guidelines for creation of digital objects to be submitted to RLG's Cultural Materials Initiative. January 25, 2002.

Stairways to Digital Heaven? Preserving Oral History Recordings at the National Library of Australia - This paper provides some of the context for this project and the planning processes involved in the decision to digitize. The process is then described, with some discussion of advantages and disadvantages, and some issues for the future.

Sound Savings: Preserving Audio Collections - This site contains the proceedings from the 2003 Sound Savings Symposium, co-sponsored by Preservation and Conservation Studies, University of Texas at Austin, School of Information; the Library of Congress; the National Recording Preservation Board; and the Association of Research Libraries.

Survey of the State of Audio Collections in Academic Libraries - This report by Abby Smith, David Randal Allen, and Karen Allen contains a survey undertaken in 2003 by CLIR to study the state
of audio recordings in academic libraries. One purpose of the survey was to
inform decision makers in those libraries, as well as in funding agencies, about
the scale and extent of barriers to preservation and access. Another purpose was
to elicit information that would help the participating libraries assess their
own readiness to preserve and provide access to their recorded-sound
collections. We also hoped that survey findings would help library leaders and
funders determine how best to allocate preservation funds and thereby help
ensure access to historically important sound recordings. Finally, the survey
was designed to raise awareness within the larger research and funding
communities of the value of audio collections and to encourage institutions with
important audio holdings to seek support for their collections.

Tape Restoration Tips - This is a very in depth page of information on tape restoration and preservation from Richard L. Hess of Vignettes Media, including some great diagrams and illustrations.

Working Paper on Digitizing Audio for the National Gallery of the Spoken Word and the African Online Digital Library - Best Practices for Audio Digitization published and used by the African Online Digital Library and the National Gallery of the Spoken Word at Michigan State University.

Indexing, Cataloguing, Metadata & Database Issues

Audio Visual Cataloguing Secrets Revealed! - The public library catalogue is a wonderful and mysterious place. It holds the key to the Library’s vast holdings and where to find them. However, there are times when the catalogue seems to speak its own secret language, and in this article we provide a few translations for terms you may encounter with Audio Visual entries.

Creating Digital Audio Resources: A Guide to Good Practice - Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) guidelines on creating documentation to describe the content and status of resources and their constituent parts.

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative - The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include consensus-driven working groups, global conferences and workshops, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices.

Guidelines for Encoding Bibliographic Citation Information in Dublin Core Metadata - This document provides guidelines for capturing bibliographic citation information within a Dublin Core description. It focuses on bibliographic citations for journal articles, but it also considers other genre. It deals primarily with bibliographic citations for a resource within its own metadata, but some guidelines for describing references to other resources are also indicated. Some other issues that arise when describing a bibliographic resource using Dublin Core metadata are also discussed.

Library of Congress: MARC Standards - The MARC formats are standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form.

Metadata Standards for Museum Cataloguing - Multimedia medadata standards at the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN).

Copyright/Access

ARL, Office of Scholarly Communication: Copyright Information and Resources - This page from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) contains a list of resources dealing with copyright and intellectual property issues.

Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation and Dissemination of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries and Archives - This report addresses the question of what libraries and archives are legally empowered to do to preserve and make accessible for research their holdings of pre-1972 commercial recordings, the large aural legacy that is not protected by federal copyright. As the first in-depth analysis by a nationally known expert in copyright law, this report will also be a timely and authoritative aid to the many librarians and archivists who face decisions daily about how to establish priorities for sound preservation.

Copyright Website - Online Copyright Registration Service and Copyright Information Portal - Launched in 1995, the Copyright Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information delivery by providing transparency to a particularly opaque and obtuse area of intellectual property. Whether you want to protect your own work by using the Copyright Wizard to file a Copyright Registration with the US Copyright Office, or check out the legal hijinks of the movie, recording and software industries, this is the place.

Crash Course in Copyright - This site by the University of Texas system includes background information on copyright, outside sources, and a tutorial.

MLA: Copyright for Music Librarians - This resource from the Music Library Association contains the following sections: FAQs - scenarios and guidance about general copyright provisions, reserves, preservation, performance rights, issues for composers and authors, and video in the library; Current Issues - information about pending legislation, news, and litigation and its impact on music libraries; Guidelines - full text of various guidelines relevant to music and education as adopted by professional organizations; including the Music Library Association's statements on the Copyright Law and Fair Use in Music and Digital Transmission of Electronic Reserves; and Resources - selection of virtual and tangible copyright resources.

Survey of Reissue of US Recordings - The purpose of this study by Tim Brooks was to determine the legal accessibility of sound
recordings published in the United States. The survey was designed to quantify
the degree to which rights holders of historical sound recordings have made
available, either directly or through licensees, past recordings that they
control.

US Copyright Code - This link from Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute takes you directly to the US code (title 17) dealing with copyright.

Digital Audio Projects and Collections

The Axe-Houghton Multimedia Archive at Poets House - This collection includes recordings of live poetry events spanning half a century from a range of literary venues, and includes audio recordings from over twelve years of programming at Poets House. A project is currently underway to digitize the collection.

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Audio Archive - The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) was founded by Robert Maynard Hutchins and was based in Santa Barbara, California, from 1959 to 1987. During that time it brought together many of the most capable and distinguished minds of the times to discuss vital issues facing American society of the day. The goal of this project is to digitize and make accessible on the web some of the most important conference proceedings, talks, and dialogues recorded by CSDI.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project - The Department of Special Collections at the Davidon Library, UC Santa Barbara, has over 5000 digitized versions of cylinder recordings from the early 20th Century.

MSU Vincent Voice Library - The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library is the largest academic voice library in the nation. It houses taped utterances (speeches, performances, lectures, interviews, broadcasts, etc.) by over 50,000 persons from all walks of life recorded over 100 years.

Naropa University Audio Archive Project - The mission of the Naropa Audio Archive Reformatting and Access Project is to enhance appreciation and understanding of post-World-War-Two American literature and its role in social change and cultural criticism, by digitizing, cataloging and greatly improving access to their unique audio collection.

National Gallery of the Spoken Word (NGSW) and HistoricalVoices.org - NGSW is an ongoing five year research project spearheaded by the National Science Foundation. The NGSW is creating an online fully-searchable digital library of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century at HistoricalVoices.org. NGSW provides storage for these digital holdings and public exhibit "space" for the most evocative collections. From Thomas Edison's first cylinder recordings and the voices of Babe Ruth and Florence Nightingale to Studs Terkel's timeless interviews and the oral arguments of the US Supreme Court, the collections of the NGSW digital library cover a variety of interests and topics.

OYEZ - This project provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio, including all audio in the Court recorded since 1995.

Recorded Sound Reference Center (Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress) - The Recorded Sound Reference Center provides access to the commercial and archival audio holdings of the Library of Congress. The collection dates from 1926 when Victor Records donated over 400 discs to the Library's Music Division to supplement its print and manuscript holdings. In the custody of the Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division since 1978, the collection has grown to include over 2 million items encompassing audio formats from cylinders to CDs. The holdings complement the field recordings of the American Folklife Center and the moving image collections served in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room.

Sound Directions - Sound archives have reached a critical point in their history marked by the simultaneous rapid deterioration of unique original materials, the development of expensive and powerful new digital technologies, and the consequent decline of analog formats and media. The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) and the Archive of World Music (AWM) at Harvard University have received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to undertake a joint technical archiving project-a collaborative research and development initiative with tangible end results-that will create best practices and test emerging standards for digital preservation of archival audio.

The Starr-Gannett Foundation Inc. - The Starr-Gennett Foundation is dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Gennett Records and its parent organization, the Starr Piano Company. The Foundation is working to save this important legacy and foster worldwide appreciation for this remarkable piece of American popular music history.

Variations 2 - The Variations2 project aims to establish a digital music library testbed system containing music in a variety of formats, involving research and development in the areas of system architecture, metadata standards, component-based application architecture, and network services. This system will be used as a foundation for digital library research in the areas of instruction, usability, human-computer interaction, and intellectual property rights.

WNYC, Preservation and Archive Unit - This collection houses more than 50,000 recordings in a variety of formats, from early lacquer and acetate discs, to reel-to-reel tapes, to digital audio tapes and compact discs, relating to WNYC, New York Public Radio.

Digital Archiving of World Languages

DELAMAN: Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Archive Network - DELAMAN has been set up to form an international network of archives that will stimulate intensive interaction about practical matters that result from the experiences of fieldworkers and archivists, and to act as an information clearinghouse. DELAMAN is intended as an open organisation where any initiative actively contributing to documentation and archiving of endangered languages and musics can participate. Collaboration with other initiatives (as appropriate) is welcomed.

E-MELD: Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data project - The goals of E-MELD are to (1) aid in the preservation of endangered languages data and documentation; and (2) aid in the development of the infrastructure necessary for effective collaboration among electronic archives.

OLAC: Open Language Archives Community - The Open Language Archives Community is an international partnership of institutions and individuals who are creating a worldwide virtual library of language resources by: (1) developing consensus on best current practice for the digital archiving of language resources, and (2) developing a network of interoperating repositories and services for housing and accessing such resources.

PARADISEC - The Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) offers a facility for digital conservation and access for endangered materials from the Pacific region. They have established a framework for accessioning, cataloguing and digitising audio, text and visual material, and preserving digital copies. The primary focus of this initial stage is safe preservation of material that would otherwise be lost, especially field tapes from the 1950s and 1960s. PARADISEC is a consortium of four universities: the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne, New England and the Australian National University.

RNLD: Resource Nework for Linguistic Diversity - This site aims to share skills on methods for working with endangered languages between language maintenance practitioners in the region broadly bounded by Australia, Indonesia, East Timor and Melanesia.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster Mitigation Planning Assistance - This site contains resources and sample plans for disaster preparedness and mitigation. The Disaster Mitigation Planning Assistance Website is a joint project of Michigan State University Libraries, the Center for Great Lakes Culture and the California Preservation Program.

Disaster Recovery Tips - This page from tape restoration company SPECS BROS. contains tips to minimize damage and facilitate recovery after a disaster. The site also features a Hurricane and Flood Recovery Advice page.

See also the A/V Companies section of this page for specific companies who specialize in disaster recovery or media restoration.