Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 59 No. 1, 2016.
Review article
Archiving Sound Recordings
Lucia Načinović Prskalo
Abstract
Some sound recordings are a part of the cultural and national heritage and as such they represent archival records. They should be protected but at the same time available to the public. Through the past, sound recordings have been created and played using a variety of equipment for recording and reproducing sound. Different segments of human activities that are of cultural, national and practical significance have been recorded. Therefore sound recordings are included among the archival records. They are kept in the youngest segments of the archives - sound archives. Storage media for sound recordings are susceptible to external influencesand to damage caused by improper use, inappropriate storage or equipment for reproduction. Therefore, in sound archives the best conditions should be ensured in order to avoid changes to the carriers and retain its original shape as long as possible. As the deterioration of the carriers over time is, however, inevitable, the only way to preserve sound recordings stored on them is by transferring files onto new media. In recent years, the problem of obsolescence of the carriers and equipment is increasingly being handled by digitizing sound recordings and by making those digitized copies available to the public while storing the recordings in their original form and format. The quality of digital recordings mostly depends on the methods of sampling and quantization of the analogue signal during its conversion to the digital format, and file format. In order to clarify the context and content of archival records and thus increase their availability, the archival records are described. For this purpose there are different norms and standards. First sound recordings in Croatia have been created as early as 1900. We can say that Croatia has a long tradition of the sound recording, but there is no institution that systematically takes care of them. Sound recordings that represent archival records are stored in multiple locations, either in institutions or private collections. In some institutions they are not available for the public use, and in private collections largely not available and unlisted. It is therefore of utmost importance that Croatian sound archive is founded. Although there were attempts to establish a central Croatian sound archive in the past, it still does not exist. If the situation does not change soon, many recordings could forever be lost or permanently destroyed.
Keywords
sound recordings; sound archives; preservation of sound recordings; digitization of sound recordings; description of sound recordings; central Croatian sound archive
Hrčak ID:
182475
URI
Publication date:
15.9.2016.
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