Publication on best practices for audio preservation

The Sound Directions project at Harvard University and Indiana
University announces the publication of Sound Directions: Best
Practices for Audio Preservation, which is available as a PDF from
<URL:http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/>. This
168-page publication presents the results of two years of research
and development funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
in the United States. This work was carried out by project and
permanent staff at both institutions in consultation with an
advisory board of experts in audio engineering, audio preservation,
and digital libraries.

Sound Directions: Best Practices for Audio Preservation establishes
best practices in many areas where they did not previously exist.
This work also explores the testing and use of existing and emerging
standards. It includes chapters on personnel and equipment for
preservation transfer, digital files, metadata, storage,
preservation packages and interchange, and audio preservation
systems and workflows. Each chapter is divided into two major parts:
a preservation overview that summarizes key concepts for collection
managers and curators, followed by a section that presents
recommended technical practices for audio engineers, digital
librarians, and other technical staff. This latter section includes
a detailed look at the inner workings of the audio preservation
systems at both Harvard and Indiana.

This first phase of the Sound Directions project produced four key
results: the publication of our findings and best practices, the
development of much needed software tools for audio preservation,
the creation or further development of audio preservation systems at
each institution, and the preservation of a large number of
critically endangered and highly valuable recordings. All of these
are detailed in this publication, which provides solid grounding for
institutions pursuing audio preservation either in-house or in
collaboration with an outside vendor.

For further information on the Sound Directions project:
soundir [at] indiana__edu

Bruce J. Gordon
Audio Engineer
Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:34
               Distributed: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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