Program

Preservation and Access: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

Period of Performance

6/1/2009 - 12/31/2012

Funding Totals

$347,682.00 (approved)
$347,682.00 (awarded)


Sound Directions: Digital Preservation and Access for Global Audio Heritage Phase III, North American Endangered Recordings

FAIN: PW-50351-09

Trustees of Indiana University (Bloomington, IN 47405-7000)
Alan Burdette (Project Director: August 2008 to April 2013)

The digitization of 29 unique audio collections created on lacquer and aluminum discs and fragile reel-to-reel tape that document Native American, African American, and Anglo American oral traditions, as well as those of other immigrant populations in the United States.

Building upon the research and the success of the first two phases of the Sound Directions project of Indiana and Harvard Universities, we propose a 19-month Phase III project through which we will put our new digital preservation systems to work preserving and making accessible highly endangered field recordings of Native American, African American, and Anglo American traditions as well as various immigrant populations in the United States. In short, we are proposing a body of recorded heritage that is of great significance to the humanities and that must receive preservation treatment soon if their content is to survive at the highest level of quality possible or, in a number of cases, survive at all. In addition, this project will provide a model by which digital audio preservation systems, which are in an early phase of development, may be employed in a full audio preservation and access project using appropriate standards.