Training

Training for the cultural sector on planning, identifying and caring for, digitising, cataloguing and providing access to sound recordings

Sound recording technology has been with us for well over a century, and it’s extremely common to find small quantities of tapes, discs and other formats in gallery, library, archive and museum collections around the UK and beyond, often held as part of larger, more traditional collections.  

Few professional staff in these institutions have received training in how to care for and make use of sound items, and as a result they are often relegated to the back of the shelf, waiting for a day that never comes. Many sound formats are endangered however, due to the looming unavailability of the necessary playback equipment, and so the time we have in which to finally tackle these collection items is limited, to a few years at most.  

The UK-wide Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project is launching a series of online resources and activities, to help collection holders understand and care for their sound collections 

About this event  

This free online training on caring for audio collections is open to anyone working in a gallery, library, archive or museums in Wales. The aim is to help collection holders to understand and care for their sound archive. 

The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage team at the National Library of Wales will host a series of online training events focusing on:  

1. Digitisation and format identification (90 min) 10.00am 7 September, 2021 

This event will focus on how to identify, handle and store audio carriers, and learn about the principals of digitisation 

2. Planning and collection preparation (1 hr) 10.00am 14 September, 2021 

This event will focus on planning and collection preparation. Learn how to create a basic preservation plan and how to audit your own sound collections 

3. Cataloguing audio collections (1 hr) 10.00am 21 September, 2021 

This event will focus on the importance of creating metadata for your collections. Learn how to catalogue your sound archive, and create concise summaries for the recordings  

4. Rights and on-line access (1 hr) 10.00am 28 September, 2021 

This event will focus on the importance of copyright in sound collections. Learn how to research for right holders, and how to record any sensitive matters in order to provide onsite and online access to your collections. 

Support 

Handouts created by the British Library will be provided at the end of the session. For any enquiries or advice please contact us on: uosh@llgc.org.uk 

Book 

These presentations will take place via Zoom and tickets are available on Eventbrite

Details on how to join the event will be shared after registration