The British Library is home to the UK’s national sound archive, an extraordinary collection of 6.5 million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment from the 1880s to the present day.
However, these audio collections are under threat. Produced on media that in many cases have become unstable over time, they are at risk both from physical degradation and from the obsolescence of technology to replay them.
Professional consensus is that we have approximately 15 years in which to save our sound archives before they become unplayable and are effectively lost. The solution is to digitally preserve them, but the scale of the task required is considerable and time is running out.
The British Library has therefore launched a new programme, entitled Save our Sounds, to raise awareness of the looming crisis for audio collections and to raise the funding to digitise and digitally preserve the most fragile and unique recordings. At the same time the Library needs to ensure that new systems are developed for the acquisition of future sound production in the UK.
Save our Sounds has the following key aims:
• to preserve as much as possible of the UK’s rare and unique sound recordings, not just those in our collections but also key items from other collections across the UK
• to establish a national radio archive that will collect, protect and share a substantial part of the UK’s vibrant radio output, working with the radio industry and other partners
• to invest in new technology to enable the Library to receive music in digital formats, working with music labels and industry partners to ensure their long-term preservation.
The British Library is initiating a project to collect information about the UK’s recorded heritage with the aim of creating a directory of sound collections in the UK
To get the programme underway, the British Library is initiating a project to collect information about the UK’s recorded heritage with the aim of creating a directory of sound collections in the UK.
We are looking for information on collections held in libraries, archives, museums, galleries, voluntary organisations, companies, studios, record labels, broadcasters, press and in private hands. By telling us what you have, you can help us plan for their preservation for future generations.
Anyone who would like to contribute to the directory should go to the UK Sound Directory page, where you will find further details and a form that you can fill in. The survey runs until 31 March 2015, and we’ll be publishing the finished directory soon after (though we will only publish details of specific collections where you have given us permission to do so).
There will be further Save our Sounds activities in the future, and you can track progress through our Sound & Vision blog or follow us on Twitter via @soundarchive. And do use the #saveoursounds hashtag. It’s vital that we spread the word.
(Images courtesy of The British Library)
