Save our Sounds

Save our Sounds. Luke McKernan. British Library.  12 January 2015.
The nation’s sound collections are under threat, from physical degradation, and also as play back devices wear out and disappear. "Archival consensus internationally is that we have approximately 15 years in which to save our sound collections by digitising them before they become unreadable and are effectively lost." The British Library collection contains over 6.5 million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment, from the 1880s to the present day. The Save our Sounds program has three major aims:

1. Preserve as much as possible of the nation's rare and unique sound recordings from collections across the UK
2. Establish a national radio archive to collect, protect and share with other partners
3. Invest in new technology to enable us to receive music in digital formats, working with  industry partners, to ensure their long-term preservation

The library is seeking to raise funds to help the preservation efforts, and to implement a national audit to map sound archives in the UK and to find those that are at risk.

Digital Preservation Matters.