Re: [ARSCLIST] Archival Description of Sound Recordings

[Brandon Burke <burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was just talking about this with someone last weekend.

In short, I think you'll find that many organizations have invented their
own system of cataloging and use proprietary software such as Filemaker Pro
or Microsoft Access.  Obviously, I'm not talking about music libraries or
sound archives at major institutions.  They almost uniformly follow
*standard* cataloging procedures.

I'm referring to the many smaller collections that inhabit this Earth, as
they tend to get left out of the picture.  Groups like local folklife
centers or sound collections at mid-sized universities, etc.  Folks in
those positions are often less than skilled in archival practice as it
relates to sound recording -- not their fault, of course -- and simply want
to get the ball rolling.  And who can blame them...

So the answer is...both.

As for AACR2, I have a hard time with the idea that CDs, CD-Rs, 78s, vinyl
LPs, and transcription discs are all "sound discs".  Makes for quite a mess
if you decide to sort by media for the purposes of a preservation needs
assessment, as each of those formats require wildly different storage and
cleaning conditions.

Olle Johansson at The Swedish National Archive for Recorded Sound and
Moving Images has suggested a five(?)-level method of describing audio
media complete with, for example, a level concerning the method by which
the information was committed to the carrier [magnetic, mechanical,
optical].  I think it's pretty good.  A step in the right direction,
anyway.  Try a search of the ARSClist archives for a thread called
"cataloging question".  It appeared in late January and early February of
this year and includes a brief description of Olle's system.

Good luck with your project,

-- Brandon



At 12:25 PM 4/7/2005 -0400, you wrote:
> I'm a grad student, working on a project concerning standards for
> archival description of collections of sound recordings.
>
> I've looked at IASA, the Association of Canadian Archivists' RAD, and
> have read a lot of books and articles by Smiraglia (concerning both
> cataloging and archival description.) All of these standards seem valid,
> but I was wondering what rules for description (if any) are followed by
> people who are actually archiving sound recordings.
>
> For those of you that have written finding aids for your sound
> collections, are there any rules for the description of archives that
> you follow? Or do you make up your own? And if you make up your own, do
> you use some archival standard (like APPM or DACS) as a starting point?
>
> Thanks in advance for any replies.
>
> Dean Jeffrey

_______________________________________
Brandon Burke
Archival Specialist
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6010
voice: 650.724.9711
fax: 650.725.3445
email: burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx