Re: [ARSCLIST] Laser turntable

[James L Wolf <jwol@xxxxxxx>]

Joe,

There was and is no playback of discs by patrons at the LOC, only by Recorded Sound staff. I know of no recording playback technician with whom I have worked, or who has worked at LC for the past 10+ years, who was not well trained and quite capable of handling all and playing most discs. I know of none who have damaged a single disc by negligence or ignorance. I did not believe Sam's comments were directed at myself per se, but I cannot think of single person towards whom they could have been honestly directed, and thus my response. I will respect Sam's decision not to engage this matter further here, and so leave it with this explanation.

James

>>> "joe@xxxxxxxxxxx" <sergei01@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 06/06/06 9:48 PM >>>
It appears to me that Sam was referring to playback by patrons, not staff,
as non-professional technicians. I didn't get the impression that he was
referring to the staff at all when I first read this.

js

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James L Wolf" <jwol@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 8:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Laser turntable


Since Sam Brylawski feels free to insult his former staff in a public forum,
as a former member of that staff, I feel free to respond.

The laser turntable at the Library of Congress was, and probably still is,
useful for serving researchers who wished to hear a disc many times. But at
the time of the purchase of the laser turntable, Mr. Brylawski made no
mention of "harm to collections from playback by non-professional
technicians," not in earshot of any of us anyway. As one of those former
technicians I can say quite confidently that all of us "non-professionals"
had much more experience and took much more care with the handling of sound
recordings than did anyone in management, such as Mr. Brylawski. In fact, we
took it upon ourselves to do whatever we could to protect the collections
from several ill-conceived notions of management. "Guerrilla preservation"
we called it.

Mr. Brylawski owes every technician who has ever worked "under" him a very
large  apology.

James L. Wolf



The opinions expressed are those of the individual writing, and in no way
reflect Library of Congress policy or position.
>>> goodlistening@xxxxxxxxx 06/06/06 1:54 PM >>>
LC did purchase an ELP turntable several years ago. Its intended use was for
patron playback, to enable multiple playings of a disc and minimize possible
harm to collections from playback by non-professionaltechnicians. It was
never intended by LC to be used for preservation re-formatting.

The LC playback staff was unhappy with the sound of the unit. It was decided
that the particular unit LC acquired was in need of maintenance, as LC's
experience was not at all in line with any other pleased users. I *believe*
the unit is scheduled for shipment back to the mfg for examination/overhaul.

Sam

On 6/5/06, Charles Lawson <clawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Lou Judson <loujudson@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >Is this reallly the only one available, and is it the one LoC uses?
> >Just curious...
>
> It is the only one that I am aware of.  I don't know if the LoC actually
> bought any, but they were interested in the unit some time back.
>
> The device is not a cure-all, but it can salvage some badly-damaged
> recordings without doing further damage in the process.
>
> Chas.
>
> --
> Charles Lawson <clawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx><~!B*+R^&>> Professional Audio for
CD, DVD, Broadcast & Internet
>


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