posted May 9, 2011 #
yvynyl pointed out this
great article from the LA Times about the Library of Congress facility for
Audio-Visual Conservation. It contains 90 miles of media packed into one building. Quotes like this certainly blow my mind:
The long hallway also can spark images of the closing scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," although it's not a single airplane hangar-sized room full of crates packed with who-knows-what treasures. Instead, the second-floor hallway leads past 17 vaults, each of which yields shelf after shelf filled with platters of vinyl, shellac or wax or magnetic tape in various formats: open reel as well as audiocassettes, four- and eight-track tape cartridges and digital audiotapes. There also are a good number of vintage wax cylinders as well as metal master discs.
I can't imagine the process involved with preserving all the different formats since the beginning of recorded music. The facility is looking to get a lot of the public domain works online - currently only 14% of the eligible works are available. Regardless, I would love to see more
photos of the place, it sounds impressive at the very least.
