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Re: [ARSCLIST] MAM-A CD-R Failure issues?--from H-Oral History list



I've contacted both Mary Larson and Pamela Henson offline and am copying and pasting their responses below. I'd like to thank Andy Kolovos to alerting us to this thread, and to Mary and Pamela for responding to my queries.

Best,

Bob Conrad
Fort Lee, NJ

FROM: Pamela Henson <HENSONP@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
DATE: 2:29 PM


Here's the info, from a conservator's conference in Philadelphia.


Pam Henson


Smithsonian Archives is Moving!


The Smithsonian Institution Archives will be relocating to new offices a few blocks away from its current home in the Arts and Industries Building to Capital Gallery (7th and Maryland Ave. SW) in Spring/Summer 2006. For a period of several months as we prepare for and complete the move, archival services will be limited or unavailable. We ask that you try to anticipate your records management and reference needs as far in advance as possible so that we may serve you better. Please check our website for updates and
specific information. <http://siarchives.si.edu>



Note new addresses due to anthrax crisis: Pamela M. Henson Historian Institutional History Division, MRC 414 Smithsonian Institution Archives PO Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012 (All non-USPS such as FEDEX: Pamela M. Henson, Historian Institutional History Division Smithsonian Institution Archives Room 2135, Arts and Industries Building 900 Jefferson Drive, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20024) Tel: 202-786-2735 FAX: 202-357-2395 hensonp@xxxxxx


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Subject:
error rates on Mitsui Gold (aka MAM-Gold)
From:
"Sarah Stauderman" <StaudermanS@xxxxxx>
Date:
Thu, 17 Nov 2005 10:03:38 -0500

To:
"Pamela Henson" <HENSONP@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Riccardo Ferrante" <FerranteR@xxxxxx>



From the conference this Mon/Tues in Phila:

Interesting bit of data (ok, really no pun intended) on error rates on Mitsui Gold: very high and very uneven on virgin stock (sometimes getting close to the BLERmax 50 from a brand new CD: i.e. point of failure). George Blood of Sound Safe Archives has determined that Taiyo Yuden CDs have a consistently LOW error rate right out of the box, and has continuous success with these materials for preservation purposes. While Mitsui will replace stock that measures a high error rate, it seems that there is an interesting decision here: purchase a CD that has a high error rate but a low deterioration rate, or purchase a CD that has a low error rate but a potentially higher deterioration rate (esp if stored under suboptimal conditions). Given the cost of CDs, I am inclined to think that there is a benefit of putting data/images/sound on multiple copies of the low error-rate CDs to begin with.


George always checks the error rates of batches of CDs that come to him as part of his QA, so he has lots of comparative data on brand names.

http://www.safesoundarchive.com/index.cfm

Also, another reason for us to have instrumentation that permits us to measure error rates on CDs and DVDs. I'm thinking of proposing the A/V rack for the REP.

- Sarah

***
Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager
Smithsonian Archives
202-357-1421 ext. 29

Smithsonian Institution Archives is Moving!

The Smithsonian Institution Archives will be relocating to new offices a few blocks away from its current home in the Arts and Industries Building to Capital Gallery (7th and Maryland Ave. SW) in Spring/Summer 2006. For a period of several months as we prepare for and complete the move, archival services will be limited or unavailable. We ask that you try to anticipate your records management and reference needs as far in advance as possible so
that we may serve you better. Please check our website for updates and specific information. http://siarchives.si.edu



_________________________________


FROM: malarson@xxxxxxx
DATE: 3:37 PM


Hi Bob -


Thanks for your e-mail. I know Andy Kolovos has sent a response
to the H-Oralhist list that I'm hoping will generate some
discussion on this. Frankly, I was really surprised to hear about
this, too, so I'm just as interested as the rest of our
listmembers (perhaps more so, since we now do most of our
recording using Marantz CD recorders with the MAM-A CD-Rs). If
you want to follow the responses to H-Oralhist, you can view a
list of recently sent e-mails at the bottom of the following page:
http://www.h-net.org/~oralhist/

Thanks again for your response. I'm glad to know that I wasn't
the only one surprised by the post.


Cheers -
Mary Larson
H-Oralhist Editor

Mike Richter wrote:

andy kolovos wrote:

Folks

Sorry for the cross-posting, this came across the oral history list this morning. Since we're on the topic I was wondering if anyone could address this matter.

What's this about?

Thanks,

andy

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: A note on CD-R was Changing to Digital from Cassette Tapes
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 07:14:43 -0800
From: Mary Larson <malarson@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To: H-NET/OHA Discussion List on Oral History <H-ORALHIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: H-ORALHIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


From: Pamela Henson <HENSONP@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: A note on CD-R was Changing to Digital from Cassette Tapes
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006

While the Mitsui MAM-A appear to have a good track record for
longevity, it should be noted that sound archivists have found
that they have a very high error rate when first writing the
data, sometimes to the point of failure, sometimes getting close
to the BLERmax 50.  So they should be used with caution and
tested after data burning.  Mitsui is attempting to address this
now.

Pam Henson


Without information on the speed of recording and the recorders used, the report is hard to assess.

Mike


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