What is the status of the Library of Congress Sound recording archive?
Right now, we are involved in the preservation issue in general. At the Library of Congress, we are trying to find the right way to preserve the archives. We are researching the best ways to digitize and distribute the collection. And then I hope I will be turning a lot of this material into multichannel. But, right now, we are at a crawl, considering the amount of information we have in our great archives. We are just coming to grips with preservation of the dilferent mediums. Remember, we have things from the 1890s, from wax to tin to wire to acetate to magnetic tape, you name it, Yak Butterwhatever, we got it. First we have to identify the most endangered materials. Then, we have to digitize the collection. We must digitize everything on the masters: noise, scratches – warts and all.There is no excuse for not digitizing. Even if a digital conveyance medium becomes obsolete, we will always be able to make a perfect copy as long as we transfer to the next digital medium while the digi
