'The end of all archival effort is to preserve valuable records and make them available for use. 1 While on the surface this statement by a noted archival theorist seems quite reasonable, in practice it has far-reaching implications and ramifications and its successful application may be the most difficult dual objective for any sound archive to pursue and achieve. For some repositories of archival sound recordings, only the first part of the objective can be reached because the fundamental responsibility to ensure the survival of the collection often consumes all available resources. The challenge for a sound archive comes when it attempts to facilitate 'access and dissemination' of the archival recordings that are being so diligently acquired and preserved.
The main principle on which this chapter is based is that the primary function of a sound archive is not the collection and preservation of recorded sound as such, but the service of scholars and other archive users. Preservation of sound recordings has little value per se. The primary value is in the use of the material and a sound archive exists to foster that use.
In providing access to archival sound recordings and making them available for use, a sound archive should follow the basic principles and policies that have been developed for general archival and manuscript collections. A considerable body of literature and archival theory is available on the subject of access and dissemination and readers may consult the chapter bibliography for these sources. It is only necessary here to state the standard principles advocated by archives and manuscript libraries that should also be followed by a sound archive or institution with archival sound recordings in its custody. Namely:
Develop a written statement on access policies.
Provide archival materials to researchers on equal terms of access.
Establish user, research, and duplication fees where necessary.
Provide for security and physical protection of archival holdings.
Publicize archival holdings and services.
Apply and enforce restrictions on access and use.
While these general principles are recommended as an excellent starting point, the specialized nature of archival sound recordings and their specific needs in terms of preservation, conservation and maintenance require additional guidelines so that the normal access and reference services that are expected of any archive can be provided.
The guidelines on access and use of archival sound recordings considered in this chapter are applicable whether the recorded sound collection is composed of 'published' recordings (i.e. commercially marketed, mass produced, multiple-copy recordings) or 'unpublished' recordings (such as oral history interviews, field recordings and radio broadcasts). They can be applied or adapted by all types of sound archives whether general or special in subject, local or national in scope, private or governmental in nature. It should be noted that all of the guidelines on access and use may not be practicable in every circumstance for every sound archive. It is hoped, however, that the implementation of the guidelines and recommendations will be seriously considered and treated as a goal to be strived for.
The services to be offered by a sound archive may range from the minimum of providing basic listening facilities on the premises for individual visitors to the maximum of preparing edited audio productions and programs from the archival holdings for distribution. The nature and extent of the services provided will be governed and shaped by many factors including staff and budget, overall institutional policies, restrictions on the use of certain recordings and the preservation status of the original recordings in the collection.
Internal services are fundamental and traditionally have three facets: providing information about and from the collection; providing research room listening facilities; providing for the duplication of recordings.
Information about the holdings must be available on the premises for individual users. The information may take various forms. An information sheet, brochure or pamphlet should be provided to explain the services available. General information should be given on research hours, regulations on research room use, an outline of holdings, specific copyright restrictions, a statement of duplication policy, instructions for ordering copies and on the use of playback equipment and finding aids. The principle finding aids such as shelf lists, inventories and card indexes which normally provide administrative control of holdings, should be made available to all researchers. This is especially true for basic documentation such as shelf lists that are often prepared. These primitive but essential finding aids often become a primary reference tool for researchers since full content cataloguing of sound recordings' in archives is rarely completely achieved. As a general rule all finding aids should be open to all researchers irrespective of restrictions on access that may apply to the recordings they refer to.
A substantial part of a basic reference service lies in answering inquiries received by telephone or mail. This is a necessary service that must be provided but may be limited by lack of staff or other resources. Normally the sound archive staff should be able to provide information about recordings (i.e. does the archive have a recording on a certain subject or event or of a particular person, song or title?) but may draw the line and limit the service when asked to provide information from the recordings (i.e. listening to selections or parts of recordings so as to identify speakers or composers or to furnish detailed discographical information).
In addition to the administrative finding aids generated by a sound archive, there may be other descriptive materials that will be of great use to researchers in recorded sound such as scripts, production files, personal papers, musical scores, recording company ledgers, registers and corporate files. This type of information is often essential for a researcher and as archivally important as the recordings themselves. A sound archive should therefore strive at the time of acquisition not only to obtain the actual sound recordings but also any textual material that relates to or forms an integral part in the creation of the recordings.
If a sound archive can accomplish nothing else, it must provide access to its holdings for individual researchers through some type of listening facility. Normally this will involve establishing a research room or area dedicated to user access and consultation. The research room usually is a supervised area where archive visitors are registered, use finding aids, consult with sound archive staff about holdings and listen to copies of recordings at carrels or tables equipped with playback equipment and headphones. It is often helpful to have listening room procedures and policies spelled out on a standard form to be read and signed by visitors. Written procedures and guidelines for the research room are also valuable in providing guidance and on-the-job training for the sound archive staff. This saves their time and speeds their response to inquiries. It may also be necessary to require listening appointments in advance and to limit the quantity of recordings requested in a single day by anyone researcher. The guideline here should be to provide a reference service on a daily basis limited only by the number of playback units or by the trained staff available to handle the requests. A balance between providing staff time for other archival functions, such as cataloguing, description and arrangement, should be strived for but reference service should have the highest priority, second only to the preservation of the collection.
It is important to recognize that setting up a listening facility will necessitate that the sound archive establishes an access policy that coincides with and will not compromise its preservation policies. Ideally, therefore, original sound recordings must not be handled or played by or for researchers. Proper preservation of archival sound recordings must take precedence over the needs of research. This policy may in some instances delay immediate user access to recordings but playing an original recording, such as a fragile unique disc, for one individual could destroy or damage the item forever.1
Several procedures are available and in use at various sound archives which will allow free access to researchers for listening purposes but still provide for the preservation of the original archival recordings. For most sound archives~ this requires that a listening or study copy of original recordings be prepared. Ideally the listening copy should be generated at the same time as the original recording is duplicated and a preservation tape is made. (Some sound archives now prepare the listening copy on inexpensive audio cassettes which are convenient for researcher use and take up little storage space.) Where listening copies do not exist then gradually, over a period of time and based upon preservation needs and researcher requests, a collection of original recordings can be duplicated both for preservation and research use.
For other sound archives, a less than ideal compromise is reached by original recordings being played for the researcher by sound archives staff. This is accomplished by having listening points separate from playback equipment. Researchers request recordings and listen through earphones while playback is controlled in another area by archive staff.
The ideal reference situation and the recommended procedure is to allow the user to listen to a tape copy of original recordings and control the tape playback equipment. In this way, researchers in using the equipment itself or by using remote control capabilities available on virtually all semi-professional and professional tape decks, can determine exactly which segment of the recording they wish to hear. The researcher can stop, reverse, repeat, and in general is able to work through recordings. There are many obvious advantages for a sound archive to adopt this method of providing access. Not only does it benefit the user and save archive staff time, but it preserves the original which is not subjected to repeated playings and possible abuse through handling by researchers or staff. Providing listening copies also prevents theft and allows for maximum security of the archival recordings, which should be stored in a different location from the listening facility.
Regarding the type of listening and playback equipment to be used, the basic guideline is that the research equipment be durable, reliable and able to reproduce recordings faithfully. Compromises on the quality of playback equipment used in a listening facility may be necessary. However, a sound archive should not concentrate all of its financial resources and technical staff on recording or copying original material on professional equipment and producing high-quality listening copies, then to discover it can only provide its researchers with inferior grade, poorly maintained playback equipment and headphones.
Such poor planning and disregard for the archive users actually does a disservice to the recordings being preserved which cannot then be heard as they were meant to be.
Every sound archive needs a policy and procedure for making copies of archival sound recordings for researchers. This is a fundamental service that must be provided. It is made necessary by the fact that the greatest obstacle · for the user to research in recorded sound lies in obtaining copies of required recordings. Duplication policy will, of course, depend on the nature of the collection, its preservation status, restrictions by donors on certain recordings and the copyright limitations on use that may exist within a particular country. However, within these limitations which are faced by all sound archives, a policy statement is needed outlining what will or will not be copied and backed up by procedures for making copies available once permissions are secured by the researcher.
There are several ways to provide copies of recordings when requested. Most often a duplication service, either in-house or by contract with an outside source, can be established to make tape duplicates for purchase either in a reel-to-reel or cassette format at prices to be established by the sound archive. An adequate and equitable price schedule can be formulated by charging the researcher for the cost of the tape stock, reel and box plus an additional charge for the recording engineer's time to produce the duplicate copy. Mailing, shipping, and handling charges must also be accounted for in the final costs to the researcher.
A duplication service normally requires that original recordings (whether disc, tape, wire, cylinder, etc.) be recorded, so that an additional copy is available from which duplicates can be made for researchers. The guiding principle to be followed is that just as original recordings or archival copies should not be played for or by researchers, they also must not be played repeatedly to produce duplicates. On heavily used or requested items (say more than five times) it may be advisable to prepare more than one copy for use in making duplicates for archive users.
In lieu of producing copies of recordings for purchase some sound archives, for example the Sound Section of the Public Archives of Canada, allow researchers to provide the blank tape which is used by the archive to make the requester's copy. In addition to providing a duplication service, the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch at the US National Archives in Washington DC, allows researchers to record their own copies of non-restricted recordings directly from listening copies played on its research room equipment. The visitor need only provide his own tape and recording equipment. Staff technical time and archive recording equipment can thus be used more effectively while the researcher is able inexpensively to obtain copies of recordings for study and research. These are examples of duplication procedures which aim to provide the maximum access and use of archival sound recordings at the minimum cost and inconvenience to the user.
When duplication is permissible and offered as a basic reference service then, on the basis of staff and equipment resources, a sound archive must determine whether to produce copies of segments or excerpts of recordings as needed by researchers or only to provide copies of entire reels. For some sound archives, because of the high volume of requests for duplication, it has been found to be impractical to provide copies of excerpts of recordings and a policy has been established to allow researchers to select for purchase only full reels. For extensively used collections with heavy research traffic, full-reel copying allows the archive to utilize high speed duplicating equipment thus effectively lowering the cost of tape duplicates since excessive time and labor is not required by archive technical staff to locate and record numerous segments or excerpts. A requested item is simply placed on high speed duplicators and the entire reel is quickly and cheaply reproduced. This method of duplication has been found to speed response time to researchers' orders and to be less expensive overall for the user.
Once the basic access and reference services are provided, a sound archive may branch out into auxiliary or development services which will include various forms of dissemination and distribution of its collection. These external services are a legitimate and necessary sound archive function. They serve to advertise and stimulate further demand for access and are a positive exploitation of archival holdings. These services are:
(a) Publications
A sound archive should strive to produce a general guide to the entire recorded sound holdings in its custody.1 Traditionally, such a guide is arranged by collections or accessions where a brief content description of each collection is provided noting the number of items, the primary subject coverage and the date the collection spans. The sound archive may also issue special lists of recordings based upon subject, event or speaker, for example, or it may produce discographies of certain composers, musicians or vocalists. 2 It may even be possible simply to reproduce and publish in microfilm or book form the sound archive's internal card catalog,3 or to furnish inexpensive hardcopy printouts of an automated catalogue of holdings.
To announce new accessions a sound archive may consider distributing a periodic newsletter, or issuing press releases describing newly acquired collections and their availability.
(b) Exhibitions
A sound archive may wish to provide copies of selected recordings and descriptive materials for use in exhibitions. It is often possible to furnish high quality photo facsimiles of original recordings which provide the visual exhibit matching the audio item being used. Under special circumstances and proper safeguards, to prevent environmental damage, loss or theft, a sound archive may permit the use of original recordings as display artefacts. The sharing of archival sound documents in cooperative exhibits with other archives and libraries can serve the dual purpose of disseminating knowledge and appreciation of the history of recorded sound as well as advertizing the sound archive's holdings.
(c) Loan and Sales Services
In addition to providing copies of recordings for individual users on a sales basis through the research room or by mail order, a sound archive may institute arrangements with other institutions, such as schools or libraries, to lend copies of its recordings. It may be possible to utilize and become part of an existing inter-library loan procedure or develop regional or national lending schemes. The principle to be adhered to is that loans be made to other sound archives, libraries or research institutions and not to private individuals.
It should be noted that a loan program, while highly desirable in providing wide dissemination, almost always requires separate staff to control, handle and process loan requests. A separate inspection procedure is also required to check outgoing and returned loan copies.
(d) Collaborative Research Projects
It may be possible for a sound archive to develop arrangements with university history, music or media departments to encourage teachers and their students to work with particular collections of recordings. Archival projects involving arrangement and description may be developed by sound archives and geared for students working under the supervision of teachers and archives personnel. Specific projects could be designed, such as to investigate a certain composer's work or to examine a particular speaker's or vocalist's style. Projects of this kind serve the academic and educational institutions and foster the use of recorded sound, while also providing the archive with identification and descriptive information for cataloging purposes. If the project work is properly structured and managed, what sound archive does not need its holdings rearranged, shifted, consolidated, labelled, rejacketed and inspected? These basic projects are excellent for volunteer and student-intern programs.
(e) Programs for Teaching and Broadcast Use
A method of dissemination of enormous potential for sound archives is to arrange with educational publishers to produce edited audio or multi-media packages utilizing archival sound recordings as teaching aids. Independent audiovisual producers and radio stations may also be willing to prepare programs or series for broadcast use based on archival holdings.
(f) Institutional Exchanges and Transfers
It is recommended that a sound archive develops a policy for the exchange or transfer of sound recordings with other archives or research institutions. This policy may range from covering the simple transfer of original recordings from one archive to another (either because such recordings strengthen, fill in or complete a collection, or the items cover a topic, artist, or special subject concentrated on in one particular archive) to more complicated agreements covering the exchange of duplicates that often accumulate among published recordings in an archive's holdings. 4 The result of exchanges and transfers between archives ultimately benefit research needs by providing for the consolidation of collections or by making recordings more widely available in different locations. With transfers of original recordings, the transferring sound archive must be careful to obtain the concurrence of the donors or owners of the material and the receiving archive to respect any restrictions involved.
(g) National and International Cataloguing Projects
As a sound archive develops internal finding aids and catalogues its archival sound recordings, it should disseminate this information by becoming part of cooperative efforts with other archives and libraries to create a compatible data base of descriptive information on recorded sound. 5 Efforts in this direction are already underway. For example, in the United States, five major sound archives have developed a project to produce a union catalogue of pre-LP discs (78s) held by the institutions. 6
Generally, providing basic reference and access services to a collection of sound recordings will present few insurmountable problems. Most professionally staffed sound archives will be able to develop procedures to handle telephone and postal inquiries, disseminate information about its holdings and provide an in-house listening service. The greatest obstacle occurs when the researcher wishes to obtain copies of recordings. When this happens considerable legal, institutional and financial problems often surface and interfere with the researcher's rights to access and use. Research in recorded sound can be seriously hampered by the complexity of legal problems involved with duplication requests. Not only do copyright laws, which vary from country to country, become involved, but recordings often have other restrictions on use placed upon them by the donor, owner or by institutional policies (for example, many broadcast organizations restrict access to their program archives and allow in-house broadcasting use only). For sound recordings in music archives especially, the plethora of possible restrictions and the number of permissions required can seem almost overwhelming to the researcher.
In devising procedures to assist access and at the same time enforce restrictions on use, many sound archives provide duplication of recordings based upon the general premise of whether the request is for commercial or non-commercial use. Non-commercial use normally involves requests for one copy for personal use, private research and study, or educational and classroom uses. Commercial use encompasses practically all other requests, such as use for broadcast, public presentation, further duplication, transmission or sale. The general principle to be stressed, however, is that the sound archive should provide its users with the widest access possible without infringing the owner's rights. That is to say protection of rights that may reside in a recording must be balanced against such researchers' rights as exist to have and use recorded sound materials.
To establish and enforce a viable policy of duplication, since sound archives often do not hold the rights to recordings in their custody, it is vitally necessary to obtain wherever possible full documentation of use restrictions at the time the recordings are acquired. This documentation should clearly explain the rights involved and the terms of access and use, especially regarding future duplication. Having this information available helps to crystallize and buttress an access and duplication policy. Not having this information, or not stressing the need for it to be obtained, leads to important collections of archival sound recordings being closed to research use because the archive either accepted unreasonable restrictions or did not clarify what rights were involved and who should be contacted for clearances. The net result is an unnecessary and unwarranted protection of undefined donor's rights and, thereby, a violation of the researcher's right of access and use.
In accepting restrictions on the use of recordings, it is recommended that any which go beyond those imposed by law be subject to some limitation in time, so that all sound recordings that are preserved will eventually be open for use and duplication. If a donor or owner insists on unreasonable or discriminatory restrictions on use, a sound archive should hesitate to accession the recordings. It may be difficult to justify the preservation, particularly at public expense, of recordings that the archive may never be able to make available to its users.
When there is a valid restriction on use and the researcher is required to obtain letters of permission prior to duplication, it is a sound archive's responsibility to assist the researcher by providing current information, where possible, of the names and addresses of those to be contacted. Determining ownership of copyright and doing the research necessary to locate the copyright holder is, however, the researcher's responsibility.
In applying and enforcing restrictions, it is helpful for the sound archive to develop a standard form which can be used by the researcher to secure permissions. This form will help ensure that the archive will have all the pertinent information needed in convenient format to make a decision on providing duplicates.
When no information is on file regarding duplication, it may be necessary for the sound archive to require that the permission of all persons who took part in a recording (or their, heirs or estates) be obtained. If this proves impossible after reasonable efforts on the researcher's part (as defined by the sound archive), it is recommended that before a copy of the recording is released an indemnification form be signed by the researcher thereby absolving the archive of responsibility and liability, reiterating that there are or may be rights inherent in the recording, and placing the responsibility of how the copy is used on the researcher. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Though this is a useful expedient, its legality in any particular country should first be established.)
On any tap's copy made for researchers, it is a good policy for a sound archive to affix, both visually on the container and aurally on the recordings, a statement as to the restrictions that apply to its further duplication and use. This is especially necessary in countries where copyright laws and statutes are applicable to sound recordings.
In summary, where restrictions are imposed and clearances needed prior to duplication, a sound archive has an obligation to notify researchers of the terms of access and to maintain adequate files documenting agreements of deposit. Permission and release forms and other records relating to the use of the archive's recordings should also be retained.