Rob DeLand, Head Librarian and Archivist

VanderCook College of Music, Chicago

Midwest Archives Conference 2010 Annual Meeting Chicago, IL April 23, 2010

Physical formats you’re likely to encounter

Descriptive standards

Deciding what to process first and why

What do you have? What are you LIKELY to have that’s unique (cylinder, disc, tape, etc.)?

Why is it significant? Is it a private recording or an unusual / rare commercial release?

Do you have a hidden collection of unique sound recordings?

Are there preservation issues? Playback issues?

Can you process this in-house, through a vendor, or both?

Does this item / collection fit in your scope?

Do you have the time, budget, space, resources, expertise, etc. for processing?

The purpose of this project is to identify, acquire, preserve, record and catalogue the most at-risk

music from the black gospel music tradition. This collection will primarily contain 78s, 45s, LPs, and the various tape formats issued in the United States and abroad between the 1940s and the 1980s. Additionally, any ephemera that may be of use to scholars – including PR photos and press packets, taped interviews, informal photographs, tour books and programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and sheet music – will also be acquired as it becomes available. The ultimate goal is to have a copy of every song released by every black gospel artist or group during that time period.

Historical Sound Recordings CollectionThe purpose of the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings (HSR) is to collect, preserve, and make available for study historical recordings of performers important in the fields of Western classical music, jazz, American musical theater, drama, literature, and history (including oratory). The collection, found by Mr. and Mrs. Laurence C. Witten II with their collection of early vocal recordings devoted to styles and practices of nineteenth-century singing, considered among the finest of such collections, has been extended into other subjects areas mentioned. The recordings in HSR now number over 160,000, in a variety of formats. They document performance practice from the beginning of the recording era (ca. 1890) to the present day.

More likely, you have a small hidden collection of unique sound recordings in your archives of various formats which are and unprocessed and in need of preservation

Local interest or institutional records

Lectures

Interviews

Musical performances

Something recorded off the TV or radio

Unique recordings are likely to exist in your collection on open reel tapes, cassette tapes, private recording discs, or even wax cylinders

Cylinder records

Disc records

Magnetic tape (open reel & cassettes)

“other” (wire recordings, various mag tape formats, MiniDiscs, ZIP discs, etc.)

Wax: 2-minute, 4-minute, brown/black wax

Celluloid 4-minute records are less fragile

Wax: 2-minute, 4-minute, brown/black wax

Celluloid 4-minute records are less fragile

Look for clean wax surface vs. moldy ones

Celluloid can split

Care & handling, Cleaning, Playback … look it up and plan before you proceed!

Common vs. unusual records / Specialty subjects or genres

Commercial vs. private recording

Wax-cylinder Dictating machines were also common, ca. 1915 - 1940

Original literature, original lids and record insert slips are fairly rare

Earliest 78rpm discs are 5” Berliners, ca. 1880’s – 1900’s

Victor 7”, 10” and finally 12” (plus 8”, 9”, 14”, …) discs

Later 78rpm discs are usually 10” and 12” diameter and very common (but there are exceptions!)

Microgroove LP’s were introduced in 1948

45rpm “singles” were introduced in 1949

Many enhancements and marketing gimmicks were developed over the years: electrical recording, stereo, quadraphonic, picture discs, colored vinyl

Radio transcription discs (usually 16” diameter)

Subject specialties (like the Baylor, Yale, UMKC collections)

“Home”, “Instant” or “Private” recording discs

Learn to recognize these: 2 - 4 holes in label area / usually handwritten labels

Care & handling, Cleaning, Playback … look it up and plan before you proceed!

I will focus here on private tape recordings.

Commercial tape copies are rarely “rare” and not the highest quality available, so resources should generally NOT be used to digitize them.

Wire recorders were introduced ca. 1940, Ampex open-reel tape recorders in 1948. Audio cassettes were introduced in 1963.

Don’t damage the tape.

Do you have the machine used to record the tape? Has it been operated recently? Verify this before subjecting your tape to the risk of damage.

If your tape is part of a collection, consider sending it out to a reputable vendor for digitization.

Cassette shells & hubs sometimes have mechanical problems, but can be repaired easily – don’t give up on the tape just because the shell is damaged.

Has the tape been stored well?

Consumer open-reel tapes are usually ¼” and were recorded in a variety of formats:

Old tape splices may come loose and need to be restored.

Tape backing may be paper, acetate, or polyester; each has different preservation issues (brittleness, stretching, cupping)

“Sticky Shed Syndrome” (SSS) is a problem in certain tapes made between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s where the “binder” used to attach the magnetic material to the polyester backing absorbs moisture and breaks down. Playing such a tape may destroy it, unless special precautions are taken first. These tapes should only be handled by a professional.

Only polyester tape can have SSS (how can you tell if it’s polyester?)

Full-track (mono) Two-track (mono ) Half-track (stereo ) Quarter-track (stereo ) 1/4-track (quad)

(Source: http://www.videointerchange.com/audio_history.htm)

It isn’t easy to tell if you have a tape with SSS, so monitor playback very carefully:

Tape recorder maintenance includes keeping tape heads clean (especially after playing a SSS tape)

See Richard Hess website http://www.richardhess.com/tape/ for extensive Audio Tape Restorationand Repair info

(a) listen for sluggish audio, muffled high frequencies, squeals or noises from the tape deck; and (b) watch the transport area (tape heads, capstan & pinch rollers) for build-up of magnetic material coming off the tape

Wire recordings are not rare, and should not be feared! You may have a valuable recording on your hands. (see Woody Guthrie “Live Wire” CD link)

Dicta-belts, etc. can also contain original audio that you might want to recover

MiniDiscs were popular briefly but are now obsolete. If you have any recordings on MiniDisc you should prioritize migrating these while playback machines are still available inexpensively (i.e. $40 on eBay)

Floppy discs, ZIP discs (obsolete computer media) may contain sound files and should be migrated ASAP while hardware is still available

Obsolete non-audio computer files (early versions of Finale notation SW, MIDI sequencers, etc.) may be hiding in your collection and need attention

Piano rolls (especially Ampico, Duo-Art, or Welte in the U.S.) can contain rare recordings worth preservation. Ragtime, blues & jazz rarities also exist on rolls.

DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) is the archival content standard published by SAA (2004).

1. Records in archives possess unique characteristics.

2. Respect des fonds is the basis of archival arrangement and description.

3. Arrangement involves the identification of groupings within the material.

4. Description reflects arrangement.

5. Description applies to all archival materials regardless of form or medium.

6. The principles of archival description apply equally to records created by corporate bodies and by individuals or families.

7. Archival descriptions may be presented in a variety of outputs and with varying levels of detail.

8. The creators of archival materials, as well as the materials themselves, must be described.

-SAA website

AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules) “The library cataloging community is in the process of an extensive revision of its cataloging codes, and new approaches in this standard appear to be embodying some of the same concepts as DACS. DACS, therefore, can be seen as a smaller and more focused implementation of some of the principles that will emerge in the new Resource Description and Access (RDA).”

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-161856186/dacs-and-rda-insights.html

RACS (Rules for Archival Cataloging of Sound Recordings – ARSC, 1997)

available for purchase through ARSC, or contact the ARSC DACS committee for updated status on this: http://arsc-aaa.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=480

The IASA Cataloguing Rules (IASA 1999)

(http://www.iasa-web.org/content/iasa-cataloguing-rules)

“consider four main questions when we arrange the materials: Who uses the archives? What do the users want? Why do users want it? and How do users go about getting it? If we think about this before we arrange the materials, it will affect the way we decide to proceed. We should observe the provenance, or the source and history of the materials, as much as possible but at the same time arrange them in a way that is user-friendly.”

[The] elements of a collection finding aid, includ[e] the creator, title, date, collection number, physical description, language, summary, repository, source of collection, custodial history and information about access

“It was interesting to hear different people’s ideas about what to include, and it was obvious that there is no one way to do it; descriptions will vary from archive to archive, just the way that the collections do. But if we can follow the general outlines given by DACS, our finding aids and collection descriptions will be similar enough that users will feel comfortable using them no matter which collection they need.”

– Vicki Johnson, Wake Forest Univ. 11-10-2008 (http://blog.zsr.wfu.edu/pd/tag/dacs/)

“Our window of opportunity is open, and it is our generation’s task and responsibility to convert analog holdings to digital assets, and to provide the next generation of archivists with sustainable content.”

-ARSC Technical Committee report on Preservation of Archival Sound Recordings (Version 1, 4/2009)

http://www.arsc-audio.org/pdf/ARSCTC_preservation.pdf

Cylinders:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history.php

http://tinfoil.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_cylinder

cylinder dictating machines: http://www.officemuseum.com/dictating_machines.htm

Discs:

Berliner (see LOC http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/ & Canadian site http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/4/4/m2-3006-e.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record

HOME DISC RECORDING (great photos!) http://www.west-techservices.com/p8.htm

Radio transcription discs: UMKC – search “David Goldin” at http://laurel.lso.missouri.edu/search~S3/Y & UMKC transcription blog at http://library.umkc.edu/blog/goldin-blog / also see Mike Biel dissertation

Magnetic tape & wire:

wire recordings: (great photos!) http://www.west-techservices.com/p11.htm and http://www.videointerchange.com/wire_recorder1.htm

Woody Guthrie “Live Wire” story from 1949: http://tinyurl.com/yyetvor

Richard Hess’s website http://www.richardhess.com/tape/ is outstanding resource for magnetic tape information

Other formats:

Eight Track Museum in Denton, TX: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2010/feb/22/eight-track-museum-nx35/

Piano rolls: see Rex Lawson article, Fontes Artis Musicae v53 n4-2006 and http://www.pianola.org/

Subject specialties (there are MANY examples available; here are a few):

Gospel: Baylor University gospel collection: http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm4/index_03gospel.html

Classical: Yale music library collections: http://www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/collections.htm#hsr

Jazz: UMKC Marr Sound Archives: http://library.umkc.edu/marr

Description:

SAA description of DACS: http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/d/describing-archives-a-content-standard

ARSC DACS committee: http://arsc-aaa.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=480

DACS workshop writeup: http://blog.zsr.wfu.edu/pd/2008/11/10/dacs-describing-archives-a-content-standard/ or http://blog.zsr.wfu.edu/pd/tag/dacs/

DACS and RDA: insights and questions from the new archival descriptive standard: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-161856186/dacs-and-rda-insights.html

Miscellaneous:

ARSC directory for services available at http://www.arsc-audio.org/pdf/Directory2009-02.pdf / ARSC listserv

ARSC Technical Committee report on Preservation of Archival Sound Recordings (Version 1, 4/2009) at http://www.arsc-audio.org/pdf/ARSCTC_preservation.pdf

Audio Timeline http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html

Audio History (LOTS of good illustrations of magnetic tape formats & machines, instantaneous or home recording discs, etc.) http://www.videointerchange.com/audio_history.htm

Author’s collection

Recording Technology History http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/notes.html

Thanks to Matt Sohn for advice re. magnetic tape (phone call, 4-18-2010). Matt is a Chicago-area audio restoration engineer who has worked for the CSO and Lyric Opera audio archives, and the Louis Armstrong Home in NYC.

AvSAP:

Registration is now open for: “Using the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP) Webinar”

Join us for a webinar on May 24 from 1-4 p.m. to learn more about the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP). The program helps collections managers, including those with no audiovisual experience, develop a prioritized preservation plan of their audiovisual materials. AvSAP was developed at the Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library with funding from the Instituteof Museumand Library Services to assist cultural heritage institutions with audiovisual materials in their collections as well as staff who have little to no training in audiovisual preservation.

The webinar will provide an overview of the workings of the program, and attendees will learn how to use AvSAP. A review of the evolution of the project itself, including the technologies used to collate research and design and test the tool, will also be included. Jennifer Hain Teper from the University of Illinois will be the presenter for this program.