Readers used to visit the British Library to borrow sound recordings.

The British Library bolds a huge and ever growing archive of sound recordings. Access to these recordings, however, can be problematic, usually requiting a visit to the Library, with pre-booked appointment to hand. This can be a shame, for as well as providing factual insight, sound can also augment learning by adding intrigue, color and depth.
    A joint CSR2 funded digitisation project, between JISC and the British Library, could begin to meliorate what could be perceived as barriers to access of archived sound recordings, and ensure that the UK Further and Higher Education Community will soon have the opportunity to get to content previously unavailable to the broader community outside of actually making a trip to the Library.
    The following interview outlines which areas of the archive will be digitised and what can be expected over the duration of the project and beyond.
Host: How do you choose which material to digitise?
Guest: We have put together a package of ten specific areas that we will focus on. The question which I guess you are asking is how we decided upon those. There are over 3 million separate recordings in the Archive, which add up to 550,000 hours. The way in which our work is organised is through curatorial sections. They work within particular subject fields, which has enabled us, over the years, to build up a series of relationships with departments within the community.
Host: Could you explain a little about the digitisation process itself? How are you undertaking that?
Guest: We have an in-house team, essentially responsible for putting together the packages and then checking them for their issues, qualities and so forth. The notion is to marry up their work flow with an external contractor who will undertake the actual digitisation work. Ultimately the outputs will be archival master copies and access copies for mounting on the web.
Host: How much material are you digitising, in terms of hours?
Guest: The target is 4,000 hours, a substantial mount. In relation to the total amount of material we have in the Sound Archive, it could be considered a drop in the ocean. But in terms of material mounted on the web, it is significant.
Host: What are the timescales we are looking at with this project?
Guest: We plan to have everything ready by September 2006, and a user panel will be involved in the development of a pilot due by September this year.
Host: Do you see this project as informing the British Library strategy on digitisation?
Guest: It fits in very well with the British Library strategy, and we are doing digitisation in other areas. There are other projects which we are doing which will integrate well. We are updating our on-site listening service, and there are going to be interactions with that. For the licensed ASR material, which is the majority, only authenticated users will be able to listen to it off-site. However, for the material that does not require a license, anyone in the public domain will be able to listen regardless of authentication.
Host: Have you thought about how you are going to promote this material?
Guest: Conferences, through our curators and our involvement with academic departments, as well as through JISC mailing lists. The British Library Press Office will also be closely involved.