Library of Congress Topics in Preservation Series (TOPS)

The Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress announces
the 54th presentation in the Topics in Preservation Series (TOPS):

"Optical Scanning Applied to Recorded Sound Preservation and Access:
Status and Prospects"

Whittall Pavillion
Thomas Jefferson Building, ground floor
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540

Monday, October 4, 2010
2-3pm

A major problem in the preservation of older audio recordings is
that, traditionally, playback of mechanical sound carriers has been
an inherently invasive process.  Since 2004, the Library of Congress
and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have collaborated on the
development of techniques based upon non-contact optical metrology
and image processing, in order to preserve and create access to
mechanical sound carriers without impacting the integrity of the
original carriers.

Dr. Carl Haber, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Senior
Scientist, will describe the present status of this research, with a
particular emphasis on three dimensional (3D) surface profiling.
This technique permits the extension of non-contact playback to
non-planar media such as cylinders, and may provide more accurate
data from planar carriers than a two-dimensional approach.

Additional information on the LC-LBNL collaboration can be found at
<URL:http://irene.lbl.gov/>

Dr. Haber is an experimental physicist.  He received his Ph.D. in
Physics from Columbia University and is a Senior Scientist in the
Physics Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the
University of California.  Much of his research interest involves
the development of instrumentation and methods for detecting and
measuring particles created at high energy colliders, such as the
Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.  These
interests have also led him, and his colleagues, to apply techniques
in use in this research to the topic of sound restoration.  He is a
Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Webcast opportunity:  If you would like to participate via webcast,
send email to mwilson<-at->loc<.>gov no less than two days in advance of
the event.

The Topics in Preservation Series lectures are free and open to the
public. For further details and updated information about the
series, please visit

    <URL:http://www.loc.gov/preserv/tops/schedule.html>

Dianne van der Reyden
Director for Preservation
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540-4500
202-707-5213


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:18
               Distributed: Thursday, September 30, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-18-012
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