Hi Tom,
In defense of libraries, archives and museums, frequently the items with which they are entrusted come with agreements from the original owner to limit distribution and/or specify use.
Best,
-Bruce
Bruce J. Gordon
Audio Engineer
Audio Preservation Services - a shared service of the Harvard Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
U.S.A
tel. +1(617) 495-1241
fax +1(617) 496-4636
On Sep 10, 2015, at 7:38 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi Lou:
Your Stanford story is like the Ampex Museum. Stanford appears to be a black hole, where stuff goes to end up in a warehouse and never been accessible again. I had to pay Stanford a steep copying fee for a single schematic from the Ampex Museum files, and it came with a warning not to redistribute it, as if they own the copyright. The cautionary tale is this -- don't donate something to an archive if they give vague promises about "soon" digitizing or making things accessible to the public, if you care about public access to what you're donating. Get a timetable in writing, and be prepared to provide or raise funds for the digitization (ie endow your donation). I suppose a black hole warehouse is better than the landfill, but is it really?
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 12:13 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Techs in the future - Re: [ARSCLIST] Article: Testing Old Tapes For Playability
Richard, I think this can become a very serious problem VERY soon. Are there people being trained anywhere, who gew up after the tape era basically ended?
I helped create to 40 year archive of radio interviews trhat got sent to Stanford with a promise that they would digitize them soon. “Soon” is now 15 years ago and no indications they will do it soon, or ever, and they are mostly on troublesome cheap sticky tape! It is osrt of as though a life’s work has been dumpstered!
We now “digitize” cassette copies just so we can distribute them… It’s a nonprofit so little funding…
(Matt, replies still go only to you so I changed to the list address.)
<L>
Lou Judson
Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689
On Sep 9, 2015, at 4:32 PM, Matt Sohn <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
I think that the first failure will be the failure
to find technicians who are familiar with the genre. I'll be in my mid
80s if I'm not pushing up daisies. Then there is the problem of machines
and the people to repair the machines. Finally, the tape will fall
apart, but, in general, tapes seem to be holding up well, even though
many need baking.
Cheers,
Richard
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