British Library Sound Archive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The British Library Sound Archive in London, England is one of the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word and ambient recordings. Founded by Patrick Saul, it opened in 1955 as the British Institute of Recorded Sound. It became part of the British Library in 1983.
It holds more than three million recordings, including over a million discs and 200,000 tapes. These include commercial record releases, chiefly from the UK, but with some from overseas, radio broadcasts (many from the BBC) and privately-made recordings.
The specialist collections are:
- Classical music
- Drama and literature
- Oral history
- Popular music
- Wildlife sound
- World and traditional music
Printed Materials
The Sound Archive holds an extensive reference collection of printed materials relating to recordings. The collection includes books and periodicals from around the world, a wide-ranging collection of discographies, and one of the largest collections of commercial record catalogues dating back to the early 1900s.
Charged Services
The Sound Archive provides a range of services for which there is a charge. This includes a transcription service, and spectrograms of wildlife sounds can be made to order.
Educational Services
The British Library offers training workshops and events in oral history and wildlife sound recording, as well as audiovisual archiving internships with the Centre for Conservation.
[edit] Links
- Theatre Archive Project Oral History strand.
- Archival Sound Recordings service for UK higher and further education, funded by the JISC.
- Peter Copeland Conservation Manager of the National Sound Archive/British Library Sound Archive from 1986-2002.
