Preservation of Audio Tapes

["Peter D. Verheyen" <pdverhey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The piece below was posted to the Archives list. What do people think, as
the issue of migration is going to be an increasing challenge, not just with
audio tapes, but also video, computer files...? What "bibliographic"
importance do we attach to the medium, what are we willing to sacrifice,
what shouldn't we?

Peter Verheyen 

>
>Date:    Mon, 10 Mar 1997 11:27:52 +1000
>From:    Kevin Bradley <kbradley@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Preservation of Audio Tapes
>
>A recent linguistic collection of around 200 cassette tapes that the we
>transferred to reel and CD-A for preservation presented a major problem.
> Many cassette tapes required physical repair to make them playable in
>ways other than the continual annoyance of breaking tapes.  The problems
>manifested themselves as loss of frequency response, slow running
>speeds, jammed tapes, slow changes in speed (wow) to high frequency
>modulation of the signal (scrape flutter).   Apart from the very
>apparent loss of the voice quality was a major loss of intelligibility.
>None of this was "subtle", but even if it was, it is still significant
>that the signal was compromised and that the compromised signal is now
>part of the archival record.
>
>Analogue reels recorded at the same time (1970s) at the same place and
>stored under the same conditions until we acquired them provided us with
>far fewer obstacles to replay, and when problems appeared, it was far
>easier to treat the physical item to facilitate replay than it was with
>the cassette.  Far from being an expensive option for rich institutions,
>as Stuart Reid suggests, a stable, professional, analogue reel is the
>best low cost solution for sound preservation.  A reel will survive
>benign neglect and uncertain funding when the funds for "heroic" rescue
>are unavailable.
>
>However, the life-span of the carrier is not the only concern to
>archival audio storage, and here I find myself in slight disagreement
>with Adrian Cosentini's otherwise brilliant and definitive reply to
>Stuart Reid's comment!!
>
>I very much doubt that the replay equipment and audio carrier my
>replacement is using 200 years from now (or even only 100) will resemble
>what I am recording on today.  So what becomes the major problem is not
>the life of the carrier, but the life of the format, if I can't buy the
>equipment, or if it requires a team of enthusiasts to molly-coddle an
>antiquated replay machine, then its life-span is of little consequence.
>
>The other factor with life-span of the carrier  is transfer with
>complete integrity (and low cost) to the next digital format, as the
>only thing we can be sure of in this post analogue world, is changing
>formats.
>
>We record in the field on DAT, transfer directly, in the digital domain
>to CD-R and make a reel safety copy.  I monitor the condition of the
>material by measuring error levels (which saves a debate on what
>constitutes "subtle" and whether people's voices deserve to be recorded
>and preserved properly).  A decade or two from now, or more if we are
>fortunate, I plan to load a couple of hundred CD's into the Juke Box,
>hit the "preserve now" button, and transfer them automatically to the
>next storage media while measuring and documenting the quality of the
>transfer in a way that now, with analogue tapes, costs many hours of
>highly trained staff time.
>
>For this reason I am not concerned with the permanent or  "200 year"
>digital media but only with the reliable media.  It is no longer only
>about life-span, but about managing the future.
>
>FWIW, the IASAVA technical committee has rated cassettes as one of the
>endangered carriers.   With over one third of the National Library's
>Oral History collection on original cassette, and while still trying to
>manage the other 20,000 hours of non-cassette material, some of which
>will never make it to the digital age, and will become that sad,
>unplayable, lump of plastic.  We are planning to make the smallest pile
>of lumps we reasonably can!
>
>
>Kevin Bradley
>Manager: Sound Preservation and Technical Services
>National Library of Australia.
>

<----  Begin PDV Signature File  ---->
Peter Verheyen, Conservation Librarian
     Syracuse University Library
         Syracuse, NY 13244
            315.443.9937
 <http://www.dreamscape.com/pdverhey>
<----   End PDV Signature File   ---->