Speaking as the guy who asked the question, let me second Melodie's remarks. The people on this list are gems. I'm in touch separately with each of the individuals who responded, but I want to people who are regulars here to know how much I appreciate you. It's nice when a know-it-all like me asks a question about something he is totally ignorant of, and people respond as graciously as have the ARSC list members. Ed Morman Edward T. Morman, MSLS, PhD Director, Jacobus tenBroek Library NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND JERNIGAN INSTITUTE 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore MD 21230 410.659.9314 x2225 410.6595129 (fax) -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Frances, Melodie Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 6:29 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] basic question from a newbie Sorry to take up bandwidth with a slightly off topic post, but hopefully I will be forgiven - I just wanted to say that this listserv is an example of what is so cool about librarians - we SHARE information and help each other out - I too am at the beginning of a project and it would be impossible for me to attempt to do it without all of the wonderful help from everyone on this list - things like Richard being willing to freely share a paper that he wrote are just one example of how truly helping this profession is - given the recent approach of entities like OCLC which seems to be mostly concerned now with getting their piece of the digital $$ pie, it is really nice to see such an open attitude on this list!!! Melodie Frances -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List on behalf of Richard L. Hess Sent: Mon 1/5/2009 2:25 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] basic question from a newbie Dear Ed, The general direction of large collection archiving is to store everything in managed servers with off-site backup. We can call that many things, including "digital repository" and "trusted digital archive". For a collection of your size, the options for disk-based or tape-based off-site backup are both viable. The primary storage would be a robust disk drive system. Selecting collection management software is a big hurdle and I have no recommendations in that area. IASA standards state that a minimum of 48,000 samples per second should be used when digitizing and most of us adhere to the 24-bit recommendation as well. As IASA says, "some material would benefit from higher sample rates". This would be high-quality music and drama recordings, not "announce booth" or small-studio readings. I think the consensus is that the material which is already digitized at other sample rates and bit depths (as long as they are very common ones like 44,100 samples per second and 16 bits (CD and some DAT)) should be ingested into the digital repository in their native format. This may invite differing opinions. Storing the material as WAV files in the digital repository is also the accepted standard. MP3 and other compressed files may be generated at the same time in order to provide lower-bit-rate access copies. I have some hopefully useful information at www.richardhess.com/notes/ and you can read about the tape digitization and restoration work I do at www.richardhess.com/tape/ There are lists of resources on the ARSC web site ( www.arsc-aurio.org ). One of the most useful resources is the IASA TC-04 document (available from IASA), at least for the technical side of audio digitization. In order to help you go through the collection and prioritize sub-portions, the FACET tool from Indiana University is quite useful as it helps to identify and quantify risks to the collection. That, and the documents from the Sound Directions project are available here: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/ Many of us here can answer specific questions. We each have our own areas of experience. A few of my "soapbox" items are: - Get as good a playback as possible -- this is the last time the tape will be played - Don't destroy/dispose of the original analog tapes - Just because person A can't play the tape doesn't mean person B can't as well. A note on the last point: the hard disk drive I ranted about here a few weeks ago was unrecoverable both by CBL and DriveSavers. Most likely because of a well-intentioned, but ill-advised opening of the drive by a computer "consultant" prior to sending it to CBL. If you're not sure of the recovery method and you think something is wrong in any media, don't "guess" and don't take steps that may make the situation worse. My summary paper of tape degradation factors was recently published in the ARSC Journal and now is online at http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journ al_39-2.pdf Good luck with a worthwhile and exciting project! Cheers, Richard At 04:25 PM 2009-01-05, Morman, Ed wrote: >Dear experts on recorded sound preservation, > > > >The National Federation of the Blind owns thousands, if not tens of >thousands, of hours of sound recordings that we need to preserve in the >most efficient way, while still having ready access to them. All of our >current recording is done digitally, and stored on MAM-A professional >grade gold CDs. Our collections extend back to the 1950s and include >reel-to-reel and cassette masters, as well as digital audio tape and >other digitized recordings on CDs. Much of the digitization of the >older material was done haphazardly. > > > >As you can imagine, the sound archives are quite important to an >organization of blind people. We would like retrospectively to insure >that all our recordings are digitized professionally and stored in a >little space as possible given concerns for preservation. > > > >We recently joined ARSC, and I signed up for this listserv in order to >learn from folks in the sound preservation enterprise. > > > >Any advice you can provide will be much appreciated! > > > >I thank you in advance. > > > >Ed Morman > > > > > >Edward T. Morman, MSLS, PhD > >Director, Jacobus tenBroek Library > >NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND JERNIGAN INSTITUTE > >1800 Johnson Street > >Baltimore MD 21230 > >410.659.9314 x2225 > >410.6595129 (fax) > > Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.