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Greetings all-- Have been silent on the list for quite a while but this thread has inspired me to chime in. For those of you who don't know me, I'm both an archivist and a folklorist and have worked professionally in both fields since 2002. For many years I--in cooperation with my colleagues John Fenn at the University of Oregon, Doug Boyd at University of Kentucky and others--have labored to provide basic audio field recording training (as well as digital file management and preservation) workshops to folklorists and oral historians under the auspices of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and the Oral History Association (OHA). I've also conducted a similar workshop for anthropologists at the American Anthropological Association (AAA). I am also aware of similar efforts at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM). At least in the academic context, training ethnographic fieldworkers in basic audio recording methods is not a real priority. In part this is due to the emphasis placed on acquiring theoretical knowledge and research skills. In part I suspect it has something to do with it being viewed as technician work--something people will just figure out on their own. In part because people are intimidated by the technology and overwhelmed by choices. In part because of a persistent perspective that "good enough to be audible for me to hear" is good enough. I have often pondered the possibilities of AFS developing a partnership with ARSC to present field recording and digital audio preservation and management workshops in different areas of the US. Better source recordings mean better archival records. Materials that are better managed while still in the possession of their creators stand a much better chance of surviving until they find a home in a repository. I would love to discuss this further with any ARSC members who are interested. Best, Andy On 9/7/14, 12:00 AM, ARSCLIST wrote: ____ ARC in Manhattan would love to host such an event/workshop. Could involve Columbia University musicology folks. Lemme know. b.George [log in to unmask] *** Thanks for the link, John. The recordings they played were well made. I wish all would-be folklore and oral history collectors would take 60 minutes to master the basics of field recording. So much interesting material has been collected in such bad audio quality. I would suggest this should be a mission of ARSC, teaching amateur recordists doing field work the basic techniques to capture reasonable fidelity. -- Tom Fine *** http://www.npr.org/2014/09/07/346122723/in-tennessee-scenes-from-a-nearly-lost-musical-history John H. Bondurant 859-985-3389 Berea College Hutchins Library Special Collections & Archives -- Andy Kolovos, Ph.D., MLS Co-Director and Archivist Vermont Folklife Center 88 Main Street Middlebury, VT 05753 (802) 388-4964 http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/archive/