The Edward D. Sandy Ives Preservation Sound Laboratory
Established in 1998 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Preservation Sound Lab is working to insure continuing access to the sound recordings of the Northeast Archive of Folklore and Oral History at the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine in Orono.
The Edward D. Sandy IvesWe have a two track approach to preserving old or threatened audio tapes:
1. Analog copies are made by direct transfer to new tape stock with no filtering or sound enhancements. Transfers are made to two track, quarter inch tapes at 7.5 inches per second on archival ten inch reels. These Preservation Masters form a new series of numbered recordings beginning with PM-0001 which are integrated into the Northeast Archive’s database.
2. Digital copies are made on audio compact disks (CDs) with filtering and sound enhancements allowed as needed to increase audio clarity. These CDs are numbered in accord with the Northeast Archive's numbering system and database. They form a new generation of listening (public access) copies, with the increased convenience of being able to jump from track to track, rather than having to search through sometimes lengthy analog listening copies.
Archivist Steve Green, sound preservationist Bruce Williams,
and graduate assistant Kevin Champney with the newly created
series of Preservation Masters
(photograph: bbwms, October 1999)In addition, we are working to preserve significant portions of the Northeast Archive by publishing carefully edited and engineered selections in a series of CDs attractive to both scholarly and general audiences, beginning with MFC CD-0001:
Wilmot MacDonald at the Miramichi Folksong Festival
