Re: [ARSCLIST] Preservation Standard for Sound Recordings?

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, Deena,

IASA TC-04 sets 48 kHz, 24 bits as a recommended minimum for 
preservation reformatting with much material benefiting from 96 kHz 
24 bit sampling.

In order to decide whether or not to use 48 or 96 ks/s, there are two options:
(1) Do everything at 96 ks/s which I contend is wasteful.
(2) Intelligently (and conservatively) apply when to use 96 ks/s

My current recommendations for this are:
For music and all tapes of 7.5 in/s and all discs use 96 ks/s
For spoken word reels at 3.75 in/s and slower and spoken word 
cassettes use 48 ks/s.

Then you place the files in your digital repository and it's done.

In an overall archival context, CD is a stopgap, as is anything short 
of a managed digital archive.

The options for copying are:
CD
DVD
RAID hard drives
non-RAID hard drives
LTO Tape

Each has its proponents and each has its detractors. Each has 
benefits and each has liabilities.

I am currently working on a 700 hour reformatting project for an 
organization loosely tied with the University of Toronto and we're 
placing the files on the UofT T-Space (implementation of D-Space) 
digital repository. The storage costs there were 1/4 of the cost of 
two CD sets for this material and they handle future reformatting 
(and possibly even migration) for the up-front fee.

What is Yeshiva University doing for a digital repository?

This is your best bet. I would assume that YU is doing something. 
Most universities are. D-Space was developed jointly by MIT and 
Hewlett Packard. There is other software that may be superior to 
D-Space--at least that's what I've been told, but I'm not judging 
that, I trust and entrust the selection to the people responsible for 
long-term digital preservation and access within each community. I 
know Stanford as a digital repository--I've digitized material that is in that.

Access copies would be MP3s or the WAV files themselves.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Richard

At 12:12 PM 2007-04-16, Deena Schwimmer wrote:
> (Apologies for cross-postings of this question)
>
> I would be interested in hearing from colleagues who work with or are
> otherwise familiar with preservation of sound collections.
>
> We are reformatting a sound collection, for improved access and long
> term preservation.  I was wondering if there is an industry standard for
> the preservation component.   Would CD ever be considered adequate?  Or
> is the best practice still to convert to reel?  Or some other media?
> What do you do at your institutions?
>
> If this helps, we do not have a lot of sound in our collection, and
> therefore would not be in a position to set up something that involves a
> lot of up-front work or that makes sense for a high volume.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Deena Schwimmer
> _________________________
>
> Deena Schwimmer
>
> Associate Archivist
>
> Yeshiva University Archives
>
> Mendel Gottesman Library
>
> 500 W. 185th St.
>
> New York, NY  10033
>
> dschwimm@xxxxxx
>
> (212) 960-5451

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.