[cma-l] Save Our Sounds programme launched by British Library

[Tamar Millen]

The British Library have launched the Save our Sounds programme with a 
major fundraising campaign to digitise and digitally preserve the most 
fragile and unique recordings.

Save our Sounds is one of the key strands of Living Knowledge, the 
British Library’s new vision and purpose for its future, news of which 
was announced yesterday by the Library’s Chief Executive, Roly Keating.

"Sound recordings document some of our greatest creative endeavours, 
preserve key moments in our history, capture personal memories, give a 
sense of local and regional identity and they help us to understand the 
world around us. And they are extraordinarily powerful in bringing back 
to life past events: famous speeches, the voices of loved ones and those 
who have sadly left us, musical and other artistic performances, notable 
events in recent history and the familiar and exotic sounds of natural 
and urban environments.

We need to preserve sounds today - to listen to the past tomorrow. So 
it’s vital that we act now to ensure they are accessible for future 
generations."

You can get involved

The British Library are mapping the condition of sound archives around 
the UK to identify threatened collections – if you have a sound 
collection which you think could be at risk, get in touch and let them 
know. The census will run until the end of March 2015, and we’re keen to 
hear from those with private collections as much as the public and 
commercial archives out there.

All you need to know is at www.bl.uk/projects/uk-sound-directory.

You can follow them on Twitter via @soundarchive – and do make use of 
the hashtag #SaveOurSounds

Please consider your organisation making a major gift to support their 
programme: http://support.bl.uk/Page/Save-Our-Sounds

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/sound-and-vision/2015/01/save-our-sounds-15-years-to-save-the-uks-sound-collections.html#

-- 
Tamar Millen
Arts Coordinator
Community Media Association
15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX
0114 2795219

www.arts.commedia.org.uk