Sound Directions: Digital Preservation and Access for Global Audio Heritage, Preservation Phase

FAIN: PC-50072-07

Trustees of Indiana University (Bloomington, IN 47405-7000)
Daniel B. Reed (Project Director: July 2006 to May 2007)
Alan Burdette (Project Director: May 2007 to July 2010)

The implementation and testing of a paradigm of best practices devised in a previous NEH Research and Development project for preserving analog sound recordings by converting them to digital form.

The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music and the Harvard University Archive of World Music propose the Preservation Phase of Sound Directions, which will pursue the following goals: 1. Preserve a large number of unique, deteriorating audio field collections carrying historical and cultural content of vital importance to the humanities; 2. Provide improved and, in some cases, initial access to these materials, repatriating some to the communities from which they were originally recorded; 3. Create, further develop, and/or make available both data and software tools to support the preservation process, aiding other humanities archives with audio content as well as the wider audio preservation community; and 4. Provide a model for the employment of digital technologies -- an area of special focus for NEH -- for the preservation of audio field collections, furthering the work of Phase I of the Sound Directions project.