Re: arsclist Preservation of reel-to-reel, etc.

["Richard L. Hess" <lists.rlhess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lisa,

While I would not suggest trashing the original tapes (I believe in 
preserving the original artifact), in my opinion, converting them to CD-R 
is a reasonable approach for the short-to-near term.

I am sure there are people in the Princeton area who can do this. Vidpax 
is, I believe, in New York City and they should be able to do this.

I could do a few for you as well, but I'm on the left coast and it's not my 
day job <smile>.

You could also do the cassettes yourself with an audio CD recorder, the 
special audio CD blanks, a good cassette player, and a couple of standard 
audio patch cords to connect them together.

I would suggest transferring both sooner rather than later. The 60's tapes 
MAY be deteriorating (or may not, depends on many factors) and cassettes 
don't have that great a reputation (although in many respects I find the 
reputation is worse than my experience).

While in theory the reel-to-reel tapes will last a good long time 
(especially new ones made today) you've already helped prove my point that 
access to working players (especially in good condition) is going to be 
harder and harder to come by. I maintain two very good reproducers for 
different formats of 1/4 inch tape.

Please reply to richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- the from address is the one from 
which I subscribe to the list.

Cheers,

Richard

At 03:32 PM 01/12/2001 -0500, you wrote:

> > I am the Archive Assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study in
> > Princeton, NJ.  We are in need of some help here.  We have several
> > reel-to-reel audio tapes of lectures that have occurred here (these are
> > from the 1960s, primarily) that we need preservation copies made of, but
> > we don't even have the equipment to listen to them.  We also have quite a
> > few regular cassette tapes of an oral history project from the 1980s (that
> > is currently on hold) that we aren't sure how to preserve.  I have read
> > that cassettes are not the best preservation medium and they should be
> > converted to reel-to-reel as "masters," but obviously having the cassettes
> > makes them easier to listen to for research purposes.
> >
> > Does anyone know of a place, preferably in the Princeton area, that does
> > this sort of work?
> >
> > Thank you for your help.
> > Lisa Coats
> > ----------
> > Lisa Coats - Archives
> > Institute for Advanced Study
> > Einstein Drive
> > Princeton, New Jersey 08540
> > Tel: 609-734-8375
> > Fax: 609-951-4515
> > Email: lcoats@xxxxxxx
> > Website: http://www.admin.ias.edu/hslib/archives.htm
> >

Richard L. Hess                              richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Glendale, CA USA                           http://www.richardhess.com/
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