Digital Audio Preservation

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Contents

Digital Audio Preservation: The Challenges of Preserving and Converting Analog and Born Digital Audio Files

Author

Annotations by Ashley Cabala


Project Description

This project covers the topic of analog and digital audio preservation. It explores both born digital and analog formats that have been converted to digital files. The bibliography also discusses some of the best practices and challenges associated with preserving this type of media. Specific topics include issues with copyright, storage, file formats, and what the state of digital audio preservation is as far as research and literature. There are far less resources about born digital materials, but this lack of research says that this is still a new area that archivists are trying to understand. Several of the sources brought up this specific issue along with others like a lack of clear consistent standards. Due to unclear copyright laws and vast amounts of backlogs, analog audio is not fairing much better in terms of preservation. In order to solve these issues the preservation community needs to come together so we can move forward with preserving our audio history.

Annotations

When looking at preserving audio material, whether analog or digital, it is important to consider the legal implications that follow preservation. Digital preservation of audio material requires that copies are made of the original recording, and this means that copyright should always be something to be thinking about. Bailey discusses in this article that audio preservation presents a unique set of challenges because federal copyright law only protects sound recordings after February 15, 1972, which means that any recordings before then are only protected by state laws. The article goes on to examine two cases that “hold federal exceptions” on these recordings in hopes that they can be an example of how other libraries and archives can move forward without fear.

  • Bamberger, R., & Brylawski, S. (2010). The state of recorded sound preservation in the United States: A national legacy at risk in the digital age. Council on Library and Information Resources. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub148/

This study is included in the bibliography because it discusses the following issues: the current state of audio archiving, research conducted on audio preservation, the need for clear standards, laws and restrictions related to the use of recordings, and copyright restrictions and laws. The study takes the time to thoroughly explain the shortcomings of both analog and digital audio preservation. These shortcoming are due to the issues listed previously along with a lack education surrounding the need for preservation and the myriad of technical hurdles that need to be jumped over. Chapter one of the study begins by looking through various types of recorded materials both analog and digital and discusses the various shortcomings, preservation issues, and techniques needed to preserve the material. Chapter two in the study is focused solely on technical issues in digital audio preservation. One issue is the need for clear standards, but the report makes it clear that not all associations or organizations agree on what these standards should be, but without them, archivists and other institutions must press on without a clear direction. Chapter three moves on to discuss a lack of education about audio preservation. There are courses out there, the study says, that might briefly mention audio preservation, but most of the focus is on film preservation, and thus there is a lack of professionals who are trained in audio preservation and management. Chapter four, the final chapter in the study, takes a detailed look at copyright and the various challenges and uncertainty as it relates to audio preservation.

This source is a great addition to the bibliography because it begins by discussing how digital recordings came to be and admits that this type of recording presents of some the biggest challenges due to their format, but this might also be one of the biggest rewards. Brylawski moves on to talk about copyright and discusses that copyright is a challenging issue with born digital material because more often than not, the born digital recordings were not commercially produced, or are “unpublished” so no legal discussion was had around ownership. The report also discusses various recording formats and how they were transformed into born digital material. Along with this discussion, Brylawski delves into the varying issues with these different types of formats such as further copyright issues, the issues with preserving these materials, and also expressing that there is a need for professionals to collaborate if they want to succeed at properly preserving these recordings. Finally, Brylawski leaves the reader with some hope, saying that there is “great promise” with these digital files, but those preserving the material must be aware of costs and challenges associated with preserving born digital material.

  • Casey, M., & Gordon, B. (2007). Sound directions: Best practices for audio preservation. Indiana University.

This publication is the result of a collaboration between Indiana University and Harvard University in order to create and test standards for digital audio preservation and to create programs that allowed both schools to use these standards and be able to work on critical audio preservation projects. This publication proves to be a strong source as it discusses various standards for both analog and born digital materials. Chapter three is of particular note because it discusses digital files focusing on the issues of preservation, recommended file formats, selection of filenames, verification of the data integrity, and best practices for different parts of the preservation process. Other chapters include discussions on personnel and equipment for preservation transfer, a detailed chapter on various types of metadata and techniques, storage practices, preservation packages and interchange, and various preservation systems and workflows.

This study examines the “management and interoperability” of metadata when it comes to audio preservation. As digital preservation becomes more prominent, it is then vital to properly manage the assets and metadata related to the digital material in order to properly provide access and searchability to users. This study becomes important because it examines digital carriers like Broadcast Wave Format (BWF) and Metadata Encoding Transmission Standard (METS), risks involved with audio preservation, and both the current research and holes in the research surrounding these topics. The study suggests that METS is prominently the preferred standard, however there isn’t much research concerning its use for multichannel material. At the end, the study does suggest that a new application should be made for these multichannel materials that would allow for metadata to be harvested at any stage of the content creation.

  • National Recording Preservation Board (U.S.) Library of Congress. (2006). Capturing analog sound for digital preservation: Report of a roundtable discussion of best practices for transferring analog discs and tapes. Council on Library and Information Resources and Library of Congress.

Because of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, a study was conducted by the Recording Board (part of the Library of Congress) to uncover the current state of audio preservation practices and to decide on what should be a set of clear standards to use when preserving these files. This source proves useful as it begins by discussing the history of audio preservation, saying that the future of audio preservation “is in the digital arena.” The report then goes on to discuss some of the issues surrounding preserving analog materials digitally, such as a constant changing of recording and playing technologies, and various techniques used to preserve analog and digital audio. Such techniques include how to avoid deterioration, how to get accurate transfers, and some best practices. This report concludes with the members of the board sharing recommendations on how to make the practice of both converting and preserving analog and born digital audio better.

This resource is necessary to include in this bibliography because it focuses solely on born digital materials and offers insight on the processes and relationships that are often forgotten about when considering this type of material. Donors for instance might be torn between donating and preserving their born digital material, but they might be worried about maintaining privacy, while repositories might not be prepared to preserve or advocate for this material. While this resource is not specifically related to audio material, much of what this report details can be applied to digitized audio. Most of the report focuses on the acquisition of born digital material and includes discusses on the initial collection review, ethical and practical concerns about privacy and intellectual property, acquisition agreements and contacts, transferring, and assessments made by staff about the condition of the acquired material. One of the most helpful aspects of this resource is that at the end of each section there are lists of recommendations for donors, dealers, and repositories. By examining these portions of the report, archivists and institutions can better anticipate and prepare themselves and donors for the acquisition process, which will help make the process of preserving audio and non-audio digital formats easier.

  • Rodríguez Reséndiz et al. (2016). Digital preservation of sound recordings. Investigación

Bibliotecológica: Archivonomía, Bibliotecología e Información. 68: 173-195. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0187358X16300351?token=914445D2C4FE5D B03AC395C8053F91C8C432221721296E49FEEF3692218FE7EA5775D525DD13CF15 E48A8CABA8FBFEB9 This article provides information about the history behind digital audio preservation. It discusses the need for it, the most prolific people, and the different theories on how to accomplish it. The article starts with the beginning of sound and discusses the evolution of not only how sound was captured, but the differing ways that we need to preserve these materials. The paper eventually makes its way to the digital age. It also discusses the challenges of digital preservation along with issues of human error, obsolescence, and mass storage. This article is important to include in the bibliography because it provides a necessary preservation perspective. By understanding the evolution of sound recordings and that archivists are still struggling to preserve analog materials, we can begin to see why born digital material has not received the same amount of care or attention in terms of preservation and the practices associated with it.

  • Sterne, J. (2009). The preservation paradox in digital audio. J. van Dijck & K. Bijsterveld (Eds.),

Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memory and Cultural Practices (pp. 55-66). Amsterdam University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt45kf7f.8 This chapter is useful to the bibliography because it describes the problems, paradoxes, and the futility in trying to preserve digital audio. Sterne begins by discussing how the mere act of trying to preserve digital audio seems impossible. This is due to many reasons, but mostly because there is an unfathomable amount of these files being created every day. Even in decades past institutions are only able to preserve a small percentage of the material created because we lack the foresight to know what is worth preserving, but also how to do it. Since so much of this history is “lost” Sterne begins to discuss how this might not necessarily be a bad thing, because to forget is to be human. Yet because we have the ability to capture sound, we have built in our minds this idea that sound is forever and that it gives us the ability to commune with the dead. So, with this false idea in mind we “preserve” our recordings on hard drives that lack durability and so these collections will not outlive us. They will never make it into archives and our decedents won’t know what we’re missing. Most of what we will create will be lost, but in a way that makes what is preserved that much more precious.

  • Wright, R. (2004). Digital preservation of audio, video and film: Very Informal Newsletter on

Library Automation. Vine, 34(2), 71-76. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/10.1108/03055720410550869 This article focuses on a European survey conducted by a company called Presto. They noticed that a lot of companies and archives were struggling with the amount of audio, video, and film backlogs plus the pressure from new digital material. The goal of the survey was to try and find new cost-effective ways in order to deal with the preservation issues and costs that come with trying to preserve this type of material. The biggest problem was trying to convert analog materials to digital, as the transfer process is harder to automate than material that is born digital. Some of the cost saving methods include transferring material that is already being accessed as this saves time having to transport and reshelf material and to also preform transfers like a factory meaning that you would have several simultaneous transfers with “maximum automation of checking and labeling.”

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