june09c.indd


Jane Hedberg P r e s e r v a t i o n  N e w s  

Preserving pre-1972 sound recordings 
The Council on Library and Information Re­
sources (CLIR) and the Library of Congress 
copublished “Copyright and Related Issues 
Relevant to Digital Preservation and Dis­
semination of Unpublished Pre­1972 Sound 
Recordings by Libraries and Archives.” 

The 85­page report, written by June M. 
Besek of Columbia Law School, provides 
guidance for cultural institutions that wish to 
digitize and distribute pre­1972 unpublished 
sound recordings. Unpublished recordings 
were not originally made for online dis­
tribution to the public with rights holders’ 
permission, such as private recordings of live 
musical performances, interviews done for 
field research, oral history, or news gather­
ing. Rights attached to pre­1972 unpublished 
recordings are different from the rights at­
tached to pre­1972 commercial recordings 
and all post­1972 recordings. 

Because the laws governing these rights 
are very complex and there is not much 
precedent in case law, there are no hard and 
fast guidelines. Instead, Besek poses nine 
scenarios and a series of questions to evalu­
ate if various distribution activities could be 
the basis for a legal claim. 

The report is available free of charge 
at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub144abst. 
html. Print copies are also available for $25 
each and may be ordered at the same URL. 

IASA TC04 
The International Association of Sound and 
Audiovisual Archives (IASA) published the 
second edition of the IASA Technical Com­
mittee Standards, Recommended Practices 
and Strategies, IASA­TC04, Guidelines on the 
Production and Preservation of Digital Audio 
Objects. The new edition of the de facto stan­
dard for audio preservation was substantially 

J a n e  H e d b e rg  i s  s e n i o r  p re s e r v a t i o n  p ro gr a m  
officer at Harvard University Library, e-mail: jane_ 
hedberg@harvard.edu; fax: (617) 496-8344 

revised and updated to include information 
about creating metadata, structure of OAIS 
compliant digital repositories, small scale 
storage solutions, and out­sourcing. 

The 150­page publication costs 15 Euros, 
plus 8 Euros postage, and is available from 
IASA at www.iasa­web.org/special_publica­
tions.asp. 

Preservation of sound recordings 
The Association for Recorded Sound Col­
lections Technical Committee (ARSC TC) 
has published “Preservation of Archival 
Sound Recordings, version 1.” The nine­
page statement endorses IASA documents 
TC03 and TC04 and supports the principle 
of preservation by transfer to an archival 
digital format. It covers general principles 
and guidelines, metadata—related data and 
other information, digital copies, transfer 
from analog masters, transfer from digital 
originals, and storing the digital fi les. ARSC 
TC also has published a fi ve­page annotated 
bibliography, “Essential Resources for Au­
dio Preservation,” which describes the 16 
documents it deems necessary for successful 
audio preservation. 

B o t h  d o c u m e n t s  a r e  a v a i l a b l e  
free of charge at www.arsc­audio.org 
/technical­committee.html. 

Graphics Atlas 
The Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at 
the Rochester Institute of Technology is 
upgrading the print identification Web site 
originally called Digital Sample Book and 
renaming it Graphics Atlas. There is a print 
identification application that guides users 
through samples of prints as they appear 
under magnification. There is an object ex­
plorer application that allows browsing and 
comparison of different processes through 
images of various print characteristics. There 
are also histories of printing technologies. 

The URL for the Web site is www. 
graphicsatlas.org. 

June 2009  367 C&RL News 

http:graphicsatlas.org
http:www.arsc-audio.org
www.iasa-web.org/special_publica
mailto:hedberg@harvard.edu
www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub144abst