The Studs Terkel Radio Archive: A Journey to Enhanced Usability for Audio

Abstract

The Studs Terkel Radio Archive (STRA) currently provides digital access to approximately 2,000 of the 5,600 programs produced by Chicago radio personality, Studs Terkel, which were broadcast over station WFMT from 1952 to1997. These include interviews with hundreds of noteworthy historical figures and cover a wide range of local and national issues from racial equality to women’s rights. As part of its efforts to develop a digital platform that fosters deeper user engagement with these recordings, STRA has been using experimental speech-to-text software to create transcripts of the audio, which the archive uses not only for the enhancement of search functions, but also to support an interactive remix tool that allows users to edit, combine, and share radio interviews.

Keywords:

• Audio
• transcription
• metadata
• Studs Terkel
• radio archive

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stacy T. Kowalczyk

Stacy T. Kowalczyk is an associate professor at Dominican University in the School of Information Studies. In addition, she serves as the director of Dominican University’s Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) program. She was an associate director of the Indiana University Libraries Digital Library Program, where she managed new projects and services; and the former associate director of software development for the Harvard University Libraries, where she worked the Harvard Library Digital Initiative. Kowalczyk holds a Ph.D. in information science from Indiana University and a master’s degree in library science from Dominican University.

Allison Schein Holmes

Allison Schein Holmes is the Director of Media Archives at WTTW/Chicago PBS and WFMT Chicago. As the Studs Terkel Radio Archive archivist, she collaborates with such partners as the Library of Congress, the Chicago History Museum, Chicago Public Library, and Dominican University’s School of Information Studies. She earned her MLIS degree at Dominican University, whereas an adjunct faculty, she teaches in the archives program.