MAKING THE CASE: WHY AUDIO PRESERVATION CAN'T WAIT

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections presents the following program from its 2012 ARSC Annual Conference at Rochester Radisson Riverside, New York on Friday May 18, 2012:

MAKING THE CASE: WHY AUDIO PRESERVATION CAN'T WAIT
presented by Michael Casey, Marcos Sueiro Bal, Patrick Feaster, Chris Lacinak, and George Blood

Many audio preservation practitioners believe that a 15 year window of opportunity exists to digitally preserve archival audio holdings. After that, a combination of active degradation and rapidly advancing obsolescence will make it either impossible or prohibitively expensive to preserve large holdings. Some formats must be preserved even sooner.

In this session, the ARSC Technical Committee explores some of the reasons why audio preservation can't wait. The objective is to provide practitioners with language, technical details, and strategies for making the case for timely audio preservation to administrators and funding agencies.

This session will address the following topics with short presentations, followed by a round table discussion and questions:

1. Degradation: What formats are degrading catastrophically? Can we expect diminished fidelity due to ongoing degradation if we wait?

2. Obsolescence: What formats are at greatest risk due to obsolescence? How does obsolescence impact playback machines, spare parts, repair expertise, and playback expertise?

3. Value of archival sound recordings: How can we articulate the research, instructional, and experiential value and uses of archival sound recordings?

4. Making compelling arguments: What strategies can help us make the case?

5. Cost: Is there a potential increased cost of waiting to preserve? How do degradation and obsolescence issues impact cost over time?

Speakers for this session include:

Marcos Sueiro Bal—Senior Archivist, WYNC Radio;
Patrick Feaster—Media Preservation Initiative, Indiana University;
Chris Lacinak—President, AudioVisual Preservation Solutions;
George Blood—Owner, George Blood Audio and Video;
Mike Casey—Director of Media Preservation Services, Indiana University.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (www.arsc-audio.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional professionals—everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.

Videographers: Michael and Leah Biel
Editor: Nathan Georgitis