The editors state the purpose of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Guide to audio preservation is ‘to help public and private institutions, as well as individual collectors, that have sound recordings in their collections but lack the professional expertise in one or more areas to preserve them’. It achieves this aim admirably. This is a practical and straightforward guide to the preservation of audio collections for anyone working in this area.
Sweeney, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, introduces the guide by arguing the importance of audio preservation. He claims audio heritage is the ‘audio DNA’ of culture and is at risk due to changing technology, media deterioration and lack of accessibility. Meeting this challenge is difficult in an environment more prepared for print media conservation. Nevertheless, this primer gives the reader practical steps towards meeting this challenge.
All contributors are North American, as are many of the reference points. However, I can see this guide being relevant to an international audience. There are nine chapters written by a range of experts and neatly broken down into sub-sections. Topics include audio conservation, audio formats and associated risks, collections and appraisal, copyright, maintenance, description, digitization and disaster preparedness.
This book could be read sequentially for an overview of the whole field or readers could go directly to relevant chapters via the contents page or the detailed index. For readers requiring detailed technical information, there are references to professional communities and organizations involved with sound recording preservation throughout as well as additional resources provided in the appendices.
Commissioned by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, this guide comes with high credentials – and it does not disappoint. This is a useful and accessible guide to caring for and preserving audio collections. I would particularly recommend it to Information and Library Science students as well as librarians working with audio collections in public and private institutions.
RMIT University
© 2016 Miranda Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2016.1250321