I'd suggest contacting the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at Cornell University. The Curator there is Dr. Greg Budney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] The MLNS archives nature sound recordings, especially bird sound recordings, from all over the world. I don't know if they'll be sufficiently interested in your recordings that they'll be able to devote resources for archiving, but they may well. If they do, it'll be a good way to achieve permanent, replicated storage of your sounds, as well as web-based access to them. The MLNS also has a lot of experience at restoring old, decaying tapes.
Dave Mellinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Leslie McPherson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2003 5:24 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Subject: Bird Sound Audio Archiving > > I'm after some advice on a rather delicate subject and am hoping >some of you out there with more experience than I can offer some workable >suggestions or views. > I run a small archive of bird songs/calls dealing mostly with New >Zealand and Antarctic species, but more importantly these days species from >Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia as well. Sounds from other regions are >also included as well. Most of the field recordings (some 250 hours now) are >on open reel tape, with a few on cassette tape and few on DAT tapes. As these >tapes age there is noticeable deterioration in the audio quality in some >instances. My dilemma in the main is to decide what would be the best method >of preserving the entire archive for future generations to use. I've looked >at DAT recording and have been advised that while this is capable of >extremely good audio quality, it is a poor tool from an archivist's point of >view. The two main contenders appear to be minidisc, with the attenuation >problems that can occur with that medium, or compact disc, in either data disc >format that will run only on computer or the system that commercial CDs use >that will run on most domestic CD players. Whatever system is eventually >chosen will be bought in slowly, as I'm a one man band a present and as such >do not qualify for funding from the traditional sources who deal with groups >or organisations. My thinking at the present time is to go the CD way and >produce two or three copies of each disc for reasons of safety. Comments >welcome please. Reply to either the group or to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Les McPherson >P O Box 21083 >Edgeware >Christchurch >New Zealand >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.geocities.com/archivebirdsnznz/index.html
