Re: [ARSCLIST] New LoC Recording Registry

[Michael Biel <mbiel@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: James Harrod <jaharrod@xxxxxxx>
> Taking Mike Fitzgerald's lead, I would also like to point
> out the following error in the LOC announcement:

Every year there are numerous errors in the registry announcement and
listings.  I haven't had a chance to actually check the preservation
files on the registry, but I bet there are many things about the
recording elements that are missing, incomplete, or incorrect.  The main
thing I noticed this year on quick perusal of the introductory remarks
and the listing itself is the claim that the Dylan Thomas record of "A
Child’s Christmas in Wales" is "the recording credited with launching
the American audiobook industry".  CREDITED BY WHO?????????????  A
Caedmon press release?????????????????????????????  What in the world
are they talking about??  It is not even an "audiobook".  It was a
plain, simple spoken-word LP that merely contained a magazine article
and five poems.  It isn't anything near a book, which must be considered
as an entirely different category than just an ordinary spoken-word
record. It may have helped make their label successful and put it on the
map, but they came late to the field of spoken word recordings.  

If LC isn't careful they are going to put this registry into the same
level that knowledgable historians put Osborne's "Pop Memories" book.

Mike Biel  mbiel@xxxxxxxxx