[ARSCLIST] Library Science grad student seeking a few answers for a preservation presentation

[Shane Beers <sbeers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all -

I am a first semester grad student in LIS at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am currently working on a project
concerning the preservation of recorded sound, specifically focusing
on digital "preservation".

My research has given me a few questions that I have been unable to
answer, so it was suggested to me by one of the librarians at our
Music Library that I contact this list.

Here goes:

1. What equipment is used when doing analog to digital transfers?
Specifically, what special equipment is used to playback the analog
source, what types of Analog to Digital Converters (resolution/bit
depth/etc) are used, are any other special types of equipment used?

2. What are target resolutions and bit-depths for
archival/preservation projects? Do budget and technical issues force
using lower than desired resolutions?

3. What is the most common method of storage for large digital master
files? What format are they in, and into which formats are access
files made?

4. Is lossless compression (FLAC, etc) utilized at all, or is disk
space at a price point where that isn't a concern?

Thanks very much!

Shane Beers