Consider This! Providing Access to Archival Sound Collections: A Transcription Disc Example

Before embarking on a project to provide access to an archival sound collection, several special considerations should be taken into account as they may have ramifications that determine the ease in which the goal of that project is achieved. These considerations include how the format was produced, the stability of the format, how to preserve the integrity of the data collected, and the most appropriate platform to deliver access to the collection.

In 2008, the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City was awarded a three-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to catalog the 10,000 broadcast transcription discs that make up the J. David Goldin Collection. Transcription discs were used from the 1930s through the 1950s primarily for broadcast on radio. In this poster session, you will see how these special considerations were applied to this collection with successful results, and in some cases, how they were not applied resulting in adjustments that have yet to prove their effect on the overall outcome.

Session Files: 

Consider This! Providing Access to Archival Sound Collections.pdf

Poster Handout.pdf