[Dixielandjazz] Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan #3 - LA Times

[Robert Ringwald]

Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan

A Plan for Easier Listening
Library of Congress moves forward with strategy to preserve sound recordings.
by Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2013
A broad-scale plan to preserve the nation's cultural heritage captured on sound recordings
and to make more than a century's worth of recorded materials more widely available
for educational purposes is being unveiled Wednesday at the Library of Congress in
Washington.
James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, was scheduled to introduce the library's
comprehensive National Recording Preservation Plan, the library's response to Congress'
passing of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. That legislation charged
the library with addressing the protection of a vast body of sound recordings that
constitute significant cultural and historical documents. The plan contains 32 recommendations,
short term and long term, to enhance preservation and access to millions of recordings
in light of the deterioration or outright loss of millions more since they were made.
"Our collective energy in creating and consuming sound recordings has not been matched
by an equal level of interest in preserving them for posterity," Billington said
in a statement. "Radio broadcasts, music, interviews, historic speeches, field recordings,
comedy records, author readings and other recordings have already been forever lost
to the American people."
Among examples of what has been lost: a wire recording made in the cockpit of the
Enola Gay aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan near the end of World
War II; recordings made by American composer and pianist George Gershwin; the entire
recorded news and entertainment archive of one of radio's leading networks; important
recordings by performers including Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.
"As a composer who has been both informed and influenced by sound recordings, I feel
passionately that they are a heritage too easily lost, and one which requires all
due diligence to preserve," composer Stephen Sondheim said in a statement. "It is
important to remember that not only do recordings capture individual performances
and arrangements but also a great deal of music which was never written down. Once
the recordings are lost, the work itself disappears forever."
Additionally, the library's statement noted that "experts estimate that more than
half of the titles recorded on cylinder records -- the dominant format used by the
U.S. recording industry during its first 23 years -- have not survived."
"Songs and music are one of the greatest expressions of a nation's culture," said
singer and songwriter Paul Williams, who also is president of the American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the performance rights organization. "Preserving
them through sound recordings, which capture the spirit of a time, is important work.
The National Recording Preservation Plan is needed to ensure we have a coordinated
plan to preserve our cultural legacy."
Another massive issue the plan addresses besides physical preservation is opening
up access to those materials once they have been preserved.
"Many rights holders have not permitted researchers or the general public to listen
to the recordings they legally control outside the limited scope of facilities maintained
by legitimate research institutions," the library's report states.
Case in point: The Library holds more than 3 million recordings made since the technology
to record sounds was developed in the late 19th century, but the vast majority can
be accessed only by physically visiting the library's listening rooms in Washington
and Culpeper, Va.
"Despite the development of the Internet," the library's report states, "few historical
recordings can be made available online legally because of aspects of U.S. copyright
law."
Among the recommendations developed by the National Recording Preservation Board,
which consists of musicians, composers, musicologists, librarians, archivists and
members of the recording industry, is the application of current federal copyright
law to all sound recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, when the first federal law
was enacted to protect sound recordings.
Without a federal umbrella, rights are mired in a web of myriad state and local copyright
protections.
"While it might appear to be permanent on the surface, our national recorded heritage
is one of the most endangered mediums," said singer Michael Feinstein, one of the
musicians on the National Recording Preservation Board. "Even though people love
their music, they assume that because something exists in multiple copies that it
is safe from the ravages of time, but we are now keenly aware of the rush to save
so much popular music, historical events and singular sound documents, that the mind
boggles."
The Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan can be downloaded in
its entirety at
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub156
and eventually will also be on the library's website,
http://www.loc.gov
___________________________________
A Plan to Preserve Our Audio History
by Chris Richards
Washington Post, February 13, 2013
Sounds like a plan.
The Library of Congress is sharing its National Recording Preservation Plan on Wednesday,
outlining its strategy for safeguarding America's sound recordings for future generations
of listeners.
The congressionally mandated plan arrives after more than a decade of cooperation
between the library and its National Recording Preservation Board, which includes
composers, musicians, archivists, librarians, musicologists and other figures in
the recording industry.
"As a nation, we have good reason to be proud of our record of creativity in the
sound-recording arts and sciences," James H. Billington, librarian of Congress, said
in a statement. "However, our collective energy in creating and consuming sound recordings
has not been matched by an equal level of interest in preserving them for posterity."
The library's plan makes 32 recommendations toward preserving the nation's endangered
audio heritage. It calls for a publicly accessible directory of sound collections;
a national policy for collecting, cataloguing and preserving neglected recordings;
the implementation of best practices for preserving digital audio files; and more.
The National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 called on the library not only to
protect America's recordings -- from fragile cylinder records to vintage sportscasts
to hit pop songs -- but also to make them accessible to the public.
In 2002, the library launched its National Recording Registry, a collection of recordings
deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" to be preserved for
all time.
The plan announced Wednesday continues that conservation effort while fighting the
popular misconception that all of the nation's recorded culture will someday magically
appear on YouTube.
"Everybody sort of assumes that... if it's not on the Internet now, it soon will
be," says Patrick Loughney, chief of the library-affiliated Packard Campus of the
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. "The facts are exactly the opposite. There
are massive amounts of historical recordings [that are currently] out of circulation,
and it's created a sort of growing amnesia from one generation to the next."


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