RE: arsclist Assistance for Armenian Ethnomusicology Archive

["Prentice, Will" <Will.Prentice@xxxxx>]

George Brock-Nannestad wrote:

>(...)
>There are local institutions in Yerevan (Erevan) which must 
>certainly already be able to help, such as:
>(list snipped)

Actually I think this is unlikely; I visited several archives in Yerevan in
2000, and found them without exception to be absolutely desperate for
equipment and resources in general. Many of these archives hold, as you
would imagine, incredible materials, from pre-Soviet shellac and cylinders
up to present day materials, published and unpublished. I also visited some
national and regional archives in Uzbekistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and in
all, despite the wealth of material, I only encountered one single archive
which was equipped to replay shellac without significantly damaging the
artefact in doing so. (Perhaps some archives I didn't visit were better
equipped.) Much tape stock is also degrading on the shelves. Most therefore
leave much of their materials untouched, and are hoping against hope for
outside help. Post-Soviet economies have been unkind, and archivists have
generally found themselves at the back of the queue, meaning effectively
that there is no hope of internal assistance. 

I would therefore urge anyone who thinks they might be in a position to help
to do so. The BLNSA is currently in the process of arranging donations of
some turntables, amps etc to archives in the Caucasus. Debates about
transformers and eq standards are relevant and valuable, but I suspect that
in many instances, pretty much anything would be better than nothing. Given
enough background information, local ingenuity would sort such problems out
without too much worry.

If anyone is in a position to take this further, I can supply addresses and
contacts for other archives off-list.

all the best,

Will 

Will Prentice
Technical Section
British Library                                Tel: 020-7412-7443
National Sound Archive                         Fax: 020-7412-7416
96 Euston Road                                 http://www.bl.uk
London  NW1 2DB   UK                           http://cadensa.bl.uk (online
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